Martin Coy is the man in the middle for Dale’s home game against Colchester United on Saturday.

This will be the County Durham official’s 11th Dale appointment and the tenth at Spotland, with the most recent being in August 2021 when he refereed our 0-0 home draw with Scunthorpe.

We first saw Mr Coy in October 2017, in what was his debut campaign on the National List, when he refereed Dale’s Checkatrade Trophy group match at home to Stoke City U21, a game that ended in a goalless draw, before Stoke won 5-4 on penalties.

Seven weeks later, Martin was back at Spotland for the League One fixture versus Peterborough, although on this occasion he was a replacement for the original referee.

Dale were 2-0 winners that afternoon thanks to goals from Calvin Andrew and Callum Camps.

In September 2018, he was the referee who oversaw Ian Henderson’s hat-trick in the 3-0 defeat of Gillingham and four months later, Martin was in the middle at Doncaster, where an abject performance saw Dale lose 5-0.

Coy took charge of a pre-season friendly at home to Huddersfield in July 2019 and then the League One fixture against Bristol Rovers the following November, which the visitors won 2-1.

In the behind closed doors 2020/21 campaign, he appeared twice at Spotland, refereeing Dale’s Papa John’s Trophy tie against Manchester United U21 (which The Red Devils won on penalties), before returning in March for a midweek game versus Shrewsbury. Supporters may recall Dale lost 2-0 that night, 24 hours before
the infamous Fans Forum…

Before the start of last season, Martin was at Spotland once again for an entertaining friendly against Fleetwood which finished in a 3-3 draw.

Saturday will be his 13th game of the season and in the previous 12, he has shown 38 yellow cards and two reds. His most recent match was Hartlepool v Mansfield between Christmas and New Year.

Photo: Action Images

Rochdale Polls