Alan Young will make his first appearance at Spotland when he referees Dale’s important game versus Crawley on Saturday.

The Bedford-based official, who is originally from Blackpool, is in his fifth season on the National List and has previously refereed only three Dale matches.

In January 2019, Alan was in charge of our 2-1 loss at Barnsley, while two months later he was in the middle for Dale’s 1-1 draw at Gillingham.

His most recent Dale appointment was on the opening day of the 2020/21 season at Swindon, where we conceded three first half goals in an eventual 3-1 defeat.

In refereeing those games, Mr Young joined the likes of William Burns, Keith Hill and Michael Oliver in a rather unique Dale-referee related list!

This will be only his third match of this season, after refereeing Newport v Walsall and Plymouth v Peterborough (Carabao Cup) earlier this month.

Last term, Alan oversaw 19 games, showing 76 yellow cards and four reds.

Photo: Action Images

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