Dale’s game at home to Boreham Wood on Tuesday night will be refereed by SIMON MATHER.

The Manchester-based official was promoted to the National List in the summer of 2021, but Tuesday will be only his fourth Dale appointment in the meantime.

His first Dale match was at Swindon in October 2021, where George Broadbent and Liam Kelly scored in our 2-2 draw under Robbie Stockdale, while the following September, Simon was at Spotland where we went down to a 1-0 midweek loss to Leyton Orient in which Scott Quigley missed from the penalty spot.

We last had Mr Mather in middle in the first game of 2023 at Barrow, which ended in a tame 0-0 draw.

Simon regularly referees in League One and League Two, and Tuesday is only his second appointment in the National League since the separate lists were combined, with him having overseen Carlisle v Hartlepool in October.

Mather has refereed 22 games to date this season, with the most recent being Salford v Bristol Rovers just over a week ago.

Those matches have yielded 72 yellow cards and no reds, which is in direct contrast to his first year on the list when 32 games featured 137 yellow and ten red cards!

Photo: Action Images via Reuters