Dale’s final midweek game of the season away to Scunthorpe United on Wednesday will be refereed by ANDREW MILLER.

This will be the sixth time Dale have seen Mr Miller since we dropped into the National League, but the first for 12 months.

In November 2023, Andrew took charge of Dale’s 3-0 home win over Altrincham, when he replaced the originally-appointed referee, followed by him officiating our trip to AFC Fylde on New Year’s Day 2024, which ended in a 2-0 defeat and a bad injury for Jes Uchegbulam after he was sent tumbling over a non-existent perimeter wall!

At the end of February 2024, Mr Miller was again in the middle for Dale’s excellent 2-2 draw at champions-elect, Chesterfield, a game in which we came back from a two-goal deficit.

Early last season, Andrew refereed our second home fixture of the campaign - a 0-0 draw with Forest Green Rovers - before returning to Spotland last March for the 4-0 win over Aldershot.

The County Durham official has refereed in the National League since the 2016/17 season, when his first game was Barrow v Aldershot.

In November 2017, he was appointed to Dale v Bromley in the first round of the FA Cup as a reward for his performances and marks at National League level.

He has continued to officiate regularly in the fifth tier since then and has also refereed three times in League Two this season, now that the lists are combined.

Andrew’s father, Nigel Miller, was a regular referee at Dale games during his time on the league list, taking charge of our matches on 20 separate occasions, of which 16 were at Spotland

Photo: Action Images via Reuters