Dale’s home game versus Scunthorpe United on Tuesday will be refereed by the familiar figure of DARREN DRYSDALE.

The longest-serving referee on the list by some distance, having been appointed for the 2004/05 campaign, this will be Darren’s 26th match involving Dale and his 14th at Spotland, the last of which was our 3-0 home defeat of Tamworth last December.

His first Rochdale appointment was way back in October 2004 when we recorded another 3-0 home win, on that occasion over Macclesfield Town.

We have also seen him three times against former club bury, the games being a 3-1 win for The Shakers at Spotland in November 2006, the televised goalless draw at Gigg Lane in March 2014 and bury’s 1-0 FA Cup defeat of Dale in December 2015.

Another notable Dale match refereed by Mr Drysdale was at Chester in October 2005.

Dale won 3-2, but the game is remembered more for the early collision between Matt Gilks and Gregg Blundell which wouldn’t have looked out of place at a 1982 World Cup meeting between France and West Germany!

The full list of Darren’s Rochdale matches as a referee is:

Oct 2004 Dale v Macclesfield W 3-0
Oct 2005 Chester v Dale W 3-2
Nov 2006 Dale v bury L 1-3
Jan 2007 Wycombe v Dale D 1-1
Feb 2008 Dale v Peterborough L 0-2
Sep 2008 Rotherham v Dale D 2-2
Feb 2011 Tranmere v Dale D 1-1
Apr 2011 Dale v Brentford L 0-1
Oct 2011 Dale v Chesterfield D 1-1
Mar 2013 York v Dale D 0-0
Dec 2013 Dale v Bristol R W 2-0
Mar 2014 bury v Dale D 0-0
Apr 2015 Dale v Leyton Orient W 1-0
Aug 2015 Dale v MK Dons W 2-1 (Friendly)
Aug 2015 Blackpool v Dale W 2-0
Dec 2015 Dale v bury L 0-1 (FA Cup)
Mar 2017 MK Dons v Dale D 2-2
Oct 2017 Dale v Northampton D 2-2
Apr 2018 Dale v Plymouth D 1-1
Aug 2018 Burton v Dale W 2-1
Jan 2019 Peterborough v Dale L 1-2
Sep 2019 Peterborough v Dale L 0-6
Nov 2019 Bradford v Dale W 2-1 (Leasing.com Trophy)
Jan 2022 Oldham v Dale D 0-0
Oct 2022 Dale v Doncaster L 1-2
Dec 2024 Dale v Tamworth W 3-0

Before Saturday, when he was due to officiate Bromley v Notts County in League Two, Mr Drysdale had refereed 21 games this term, showing 63 yellow cards and four reds. His only National League outing was at Sutton v Carlisle in August.

Photo: Action Images via Reuters