Dale will meet a new EFL referee on Saturday when John Brooks takes charge of their League One fixture at Millwall.

The Leicestershire official is in his first season on the referees’ list, but this will be his ninth appointment since promotion.

He has already refereed six fixtures in League Two — including Cheltenham v Notts County last Saturday, while John’s only League One game to date was Scunthorpe v Southend a fortnight ago.

Mr Brooks moved up from refereeing in the National League last season, where he ended the campaign taking charge of Grimsby v Braintree in the play-offs.

A few weeks later he was a linesman at the FA Cup Final between Crystal Palace and Manchester United, which was the culmination of several high profile appointments on the line.

Not only did John ‘line’ in the Premier League most weekends, he was also a FIFA assistant, meaning he was involved in many games around Europe.

Lining duties took him to Poland (Legia Warsaw v Midtjylland), Greece (PAOK v Borussia Dortmund) and Cyprus (Cyprus v Bosnia), among several other appointments.

Mr Brooks also made the headlines a few years ago at a Premier League game between Arsenal and Manchester City.

City’s fans had paid in the region of £60 for a match ticket and at the end of the match, John was picked up on a microphone telling a City player to go and thank their fans, with words to the effect of, “they’ve paid sixty quid to watch this game.”

He was ridiculously stood down for the next match, but this alleged misdemeanour hasn’t got in the way of his progress since.

Photo: Action Images

D_Dale added 09:33 - Sep 23 Unmentioned is that he's averaged five cards a match. Hope he doesn't make a decision tomorrow to spoil things for Dale fans who'll have spent £60 or so to be in the New Den.
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TVOS1907 added 10:10 - Sep 23 ... or that one of our players doesn't, such as all the cards at Bristol Rovers.
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