Saturday sees Dale visit Portsmouth for the first time in over 33 years and the man in the middle is one of the Football League’s top performing officials this season.

Wiltshire-based Simon Hooper is the referee and his appointments to date suggest he has been receiving good ratings from assessors and clubs.

This was no more evident than last Saturday when he took charge of the East Midlands derby between former European Champions (twice) Nottingham Forest and Derby County.

Simon also oversaw the Capital One Cup tie between Hull and Huddersfield four days earlier, while last month he took charge of the fiery Bristol City v Bristol Rovers tie in the JPT.

Dale last saw Mr Hooper in March 2011 when he refereed the 1-0 win at Plymouth in which Gary Jones netted the only goal.

Earlier that season he was in the middle for our 3-1 win at Brentford when the main talking point was the second yellow card shown to Jason Kennedy for celebrating with the fans after scoring the third goal.

Technically Simon was right and probably mindful of the eye in the stand rating his every move.

Fortunately, no real harm was done as Dale held on, while JK only missed a JPT tie at Port Vale.

Mr Hooper is in his sixth season on the referee’s list and his only other Dale game was at Dagenham in January 2009 where we lost 3-2.

Altogether this season he has refereed nine games, showing 32 yellow cards and one red.

Photo: Action Images

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