If there was ever any doubt about the importance of Saturday’s big East Lancashire derby at Accrington, the appointment of Chris Foy as match referee should be the final confirmation.
Mr Foy is normally seen refereeing at Premier League fixtures, but the appointments’ officer obviously feels this weekend’s encounter at the Crown Ground is of a big enough magnitude to merit the Select Group’s longest serving official.
Foy joined the Football League list in 1996 and one of his earliest games was a 0-0 draw between Dale and Mansfield at Field Mill.
We saw Chris regularly early in his league career, including the 2-0 win at Chester on August Bank Holiday Monday 1999 when he was attacked by an angry, ageing home supporter after sending off their full-back Darren Moss.
However, since his promotion to the Select Group in 2001, Dale’s only encounter with the St Helens-based referee came in a goalless draw at Bury seven years ago.
Chris’s full list of Dale games is:
31 Aug 96 Mansfield (a), D 0-0
12 Apr 97 Darlington (h), W 2-0
21 Mar 98 Hartlepool (h), W 2-1
17 Nov 98 Scarborough (h), L 0-1
2 Feb 99 Stoke (h, AWS), W 2-1 [Played at Stoke]
30 Aug 99 Chester (a), W 2-0
15 Apr 00 Shrewsbury (a), W 4-2
2 Apr 05 Bury (a), D 0-0
The high points of Mr Foy’s refereeing career have been the two Wembley cup finals he has presided over.
In March 2009 he refereed the Carling Cup Final between Manchester United and Tottenham, while just over 12 months later he took charge of the Chelsea v Portsmouth FA Cup Final.
So far this season he has refereed five games, all in the Premier League, in which he has shown only five yellow cards.
The most recent of those matches was another Manchester United v Spurs encounter last Saturday when Mr Foy failed to play enough added time for The Reds to equalise. (According to Chaff, anyway).