Carl Berry will take charge of Dale’s game at Southend on Saturday.
The Surrey-based official is in his second season on the league list and his only previous game involving Dale was our 3-1 defeat at Exeter early last term.
The majority of Carl’s matches over the last year and a bit have come in League One and League Two, although he has taken charge of two Championship fixtures.
In February he made the long trip to the KC Stadium for Hull’s home fixture with Brighton, while last Saturday he was at the Reebok Stadium as Keith Hill’s Barnsley drew 1-1 with his home town club Bolton.
In total this season Mr Berry has refereed 12 games, showing 35 yellow cards and four red.