The familiar figure of referee Darren Drysdale will take charge of Dale’s first League One home fixture of 2017 when Oxford are the visitors on Saturday.
This will be Mr Drysdale’s 17th game involving Dale and his tenth at the Crown Oil Arena, stretching right back to the 2004/05 season.
His first Dale appointment came in October of that campaign when he was in the middle for the 3-0 home defeat of Macclesfield.
We last saw him in December 2015 for the FA Cup second round tie at home to Bury, which The Shakers won 1-0.
That was the third time Darren had refereed Rochdale against Bury, as he was also in charge at the Crown Oil Arena in November 2006 (3-1 to Bury) and at Gigg Lane in March 2014 (0-0).
Another notable Dale match refereed by Darren was at Chester in October 2005, a game Dale won 3-2, but which is remembered more for the early collision between Matt Gilks and Chris Blundell which wouldn’t have looked out of place at a World Cup meeting between France and West Germany!
The full list of Darren’s Dale matches as a referee is:
Oct 04 Rochdale v Macclesfield W 3-0
Oct 05 Chester v Rochdale W 3-2
Nov 06 Rochdale v Bury L 1-3
Jan 07 Wycombe v Rochdale D 1-1
Feb 08 Rochdale v Peterborough L 0-2
Sep 08 Rotherham v Rochdale D 2-2
Feb 11 Tranmere v Rochdale D 1-1
Apr 11 Rochdale v Brentford L 0-1
Oct 11 Rochdale v Chesterfield D 1-1
Mar 13 York v Rochdale D 0-0
Dec 13 Rochdale v Bristol R W 2-0
Mar 14 Bury v Rochdale D 0-0
Apr 15 Rochdale v Leyton Orient W 1-0
Aug 15 Rochdale v MK Dons W 2-1 (Friendly)
Aug 15 Blackpool v Rochdale W 2-0
Dec 15 Rochdale v Bury L 0-1 (FA Cup)
Due to injury, Darren didn’t return to refereeing this season until early-December. He was in the middle at Cambridge v Blackpool last Saturday and in total, has overseen eight games this term, showing 28 yellow cards and two red.