Referee Jock Waugh will take charge of Dale’s Boxing Day fixture at Tranmere.
Any Dale match will bring back good memories for the Sheffield official as his first game at Football League level was our 1-1 draw at Port Vale in August 2009.
He spent all of that season refereeing in the bottom two divisions and only took charge of one Championship match last term.
Last season also saw Jock appear at his second Dale game when he refereed the 3-2 home defeat of Dagenham & Redbridge in late October.
This season he has picked up more appointments at Championship level, as well as a couple of important games in League Two, including Cheltenham v Southend a fortnight ago and the Devon derby between Torquay and Plymouth in November.
After a bit of research, we have also found that Jock is a member of a Sheffield-based band called Meek Joe, although he actually originates from Glasgow, which was probably obvious from his name!