Dale’s third attempt at playing and completing this season’s home game against Southend United on Tuesday will be refereed by SEB STOCKBRIDGE.

The Tyne & Wear referee regularly referees in League One and League Two, but since the separate lists of officials were aligned into one, he can also take charge of games in the National League. However, Tuesday will be only his second match of the season at this level following York v Scunthorpe in October.

Now is in his 13th season on the National List, Tuesday is Seb’s 17th Dale game.

His second Football League appointment was our visit to Burton in August 2013, in which Peter Cavanagh was sent-off early in the game, before Dale slumped to a 1-0 defeat courtesy of Olly Lancashire’s own goal.

Twelve months later Seb refereed a 3-3 friendly draw at Bury, while early in 2015/16, he was in charge at the Crown Oil Arena for the visit of Shrewsbury, a game in which Dale raced into a 3-0 lead, before being pegged-back to 3-2 before half-time. Thankfully, there was no further scoring.

We then saw Seb four times in 2017, starting with the first match of the year at Walsall, which ended in a 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Ian Henderson and Joe Thompson.

Two months later he was at Spotland for the thrilling 3-3 draw with Sheffield United and after another month he returned for Dale’s 3-0 midweek defeat of Port Vale as a late replacement for Ben Toner.

Towards the end of 2017, Mr Stockbridge was back at the Crown Oil Arena when Dale entertained Blackburn in the Checkatrade Trophy, a game which ended 1-1 before Keith Hill’s men won on penalties.

In 2018/19 Seb oversaw our FA Cup defeat to Portsmouth, while 11 months later, he was again at the Crown Oil Arena in FA Cup action as Dale took on Wrexham, although this time we won 1-0 in the first round replay.

Three more Dale games followed for the whistler in the 2020/21 behind closed doors season, including both fixtures against Doncaster Rovers, while he was in charge at Salford (0-0) and at home to Mansfield (0-1) in the next campaign.

We last saw Seb at Spotland in March 2023 for our surprise, but merited, 2-0 home win over promotion-bound Stevenage.

The full record of his Dale games is:

Aug 2013 Burton (a), L 0-1
Aug 2014 Bury (a, F), D 3-3
Sep 2015 Shrewsbury (h), W 3-2
Jan 2017 Walsall (a), W 1-0
Mar 2017 Sheffield U (h), D 3-3
Apr 2017 Port Vale (h), W 3-0
Nov 2017 Blackburn (h, Checkatrade), D 1-1 [Dale won on pens]
Dec 2018 Portsmouth (h, FAC), L 0-1
Nov 2019 Wrexham (h, FAC), W 1-0
Sep 2020 Sheffield W (h, CC), L 0-2
Jan 2021 Doncaster (a), L 0-1
May 2021 Doncaster (h), L 1-2
Jul 2021 Rotherham (h, F), D 2-2
Oct 2021 Salford (a), D 0-0
Mar 2022 Mansfield (h), L 0-1
Mar 2023 Stevenage (h), W 2-0

Before Saturday, when he was due at Bolton v Leyton Orient, Seb had refereed 23 games this season, with the vast majority coming in the EFL. He has shown 106 yellow cards and three red cards in those matches.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters