Referee Steve Rushton is the man in the middle for Saturday’s game at Dagenham & Redbridge.

The official is in his fourth season on the league list and this will be the seventh time we have seen him at a Dale match.

In September 2009 he was the referee for our 2-0 win at Darlington, while early in 2010 he took charge of the home match against Crewe, which Dale also won 2-0.

In November 2010 Steve refereed Dale’s first-ever league game against Sheffield Wednesday, which ended in a 2-0 defeat at Hillsborough, and on Easter Saturday 2011 he was back at Spotland for the 3-2 loss to Carlisle.

We met Mr Rushton twice last season, but both matches ended in defeat.

In September he took charge of our 3-2 home loss to Charlton, while five months later he was the referee when Notts County won 1-0 at Spotland, when his best act was to send-off Lee Hughes for a poor challenge on Dale goalkeeper Peter Kurucz.

So far this season the Staffordshire official has refereed 20 games, showing 56 yellow cards and eight red and just over a month ago he was in the middle for Dagenham’s 1-0 win at Bristol Rovers.

Finally, Steve is one of a small group of officials who has followed his father onto the Football League list.

Jim Rushton was a referee from the late-1980s to the early-1990s and appeared at Spotland many times, as well as taking charge of several away games, including a Littlewoods Cup tie at Burnley in September 1988.

Photo: Action Images

D_Dale added 13:25 - Jan 12 Rushton has a higher average of red cards per game than any other league list ref. Dale have picked up several red cards this season. What odds against finishing with eleven players on the pitch this afternoon?
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