Dale’s home game against Carlisle United on Saturday will be refereed by CHARLES BREAKSPEAR.

The Surrey-based official is in his 13th season on the National List and this will be his third visit to Spotland.

In September 2021, he took charge of a 1-0 home win over Tranmere, courtesy of a late Danny Cashman goal, while later in the campaign, Charles returned to Spotland for a dire 0-0 draw with Barrow.

Mr Breakspear has also refereed Dale seven times on the road.

The first match was at Colchester in December 2014, where Keith Hill’s men were impressive 4-1 winners.

Two years later, Charles refereed our 1-1 draw at Maidstone in the FA Cup and a further 12 months after that, he took charge of a 2-1 midweek defeat at Charlton.

In September 2018, the Surrey whistler was the referee for Dale’s trip to Coventry, where Calvin Andrew scored the only goal of the game.

Calvin then put through his own goal at Charlton on the final day of that season, where Charles was again in the middle as Dale went down to a 4-0 defeat.

Mr Breakspear was then the referee at MK Dons in January 2020, where his last-minute penalty award handed the home side a 2-1 win over Brian Barry-Murphy’s Rochdale.

We then saw him at Colchester in September 2022, where a Devante Rodney penalty earned Dale a 1-0 win, although we were indebted to an injury time penalty save from Richard O’Donnell to secure the points.

All those matches have been free from controversy and a high card count, which goes against the reputation Charles has for being a strong disciplinarian on the field of play.

This hasn’t materialised to any great degree this term, as his 11 games have seen 40 yellow cards, but only one red.

His most recent match in the middle was Chesterfield v Walsall in League Two last Saturday.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters