Craig Hicks takes charge of Dale for the second time this season when we travel to Bristol Rovers on Easter Monday.

The Surrey official, who is in his second season on the referees’ list, was the man in the middle at Oxford in November, when Keith Hill’s side put on a fairly abject performance to lose 4-2. That was Craig’s only previous Dale match.

His first league appointment in August 2017 was Port Vale v Wycombe and since then he has refereed entirely in the two basement divisions, as well as at a number of games in all three knockout competitions.

Last term he was appointed to 38 matches, in which he showed 124 yellow cards and six red. Two of those dismissals were in the late-season Plymouth v Peterborough fixture, which drew plenty of criticism from that nice Posh manager at the time, Mr Steve Evans.

I’m sure most right-minded football fans will know where their opinions lie in that particular argument!

This season Craig has overseen 36 matches (103 yellow cards, 5 red), with his most recent game being Burton v Portsmouth on Friday.

Photo: Action Images

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