The Football League’s second longest-serving referee is in charge of Dale’s first-ever league visit to Fleetwood on Saturday.

Tony Bates will make the journey up from Staffordshire to referee the Lancashire derby in the final month of what is rumoured to be his last season on the league list.

Mr Bates has been a league referee for almost 17 years, with his first game being Dale’s visit to Swansea on the opening day of the 1996/97 campaign.

Fans will remember Dale lost 2-1, but we were delighted when Jan Molby missed a penalty and was then sent off by Mr Bates.

Remarkably, that’s the only time Tony has previously refereed Dale in an away fixture!

Earlier that year, Mr Bates was one of the English linesmen at Euro ’96, which was, of course, held in this country.

In total, Tony has refereed 20 previous Dale matches, while a little bit of research shows that he was also on the line when we beat Rotherham 5-3 in the FA Cup in November 1995, sending millions of visiting fans back to Millmoor well before the final whistle!

Mr Bates’ full record at Dale matches is:

17 August 1996 Swansea C v Rochdale Lost 1-2

30 November 1996 Rochdale v Scunthorpe U Lost 1-2

26 April 1997 Rochdale v Cambridge U Won 3-0

16 August 1997 Rochdale v Mansfield T Won 2-0

23 January 1999 Rochdale v Brentford Won 2-0

11 January 2000 Rochdale v Macclesfield T Won 3-2 (AWS)

16 September 2000 Rochdale v Torquay U Won 2-1

29 September 2001 Rochdale v Mansfield T Won 3-1

14 September 2002 Rochdale v Shrewsbury T Drew 1-1

7 February 2004 Rochdale v Mansfield T Won 3-0

8 March 2005 Rochdale v Northampton T Won 1-0

1 September 2007 Rochdale v MK Dons Won 3-2

3 May 2008 Rochdale v Shrewsbury T Drew 1-1

30 August 2008 Rochdale v bury Drew 1-1

Photo: Action Images

D_Dale added 09:39 - Apr 4 And he's relatively sparing with cards: 69 yellow and 2 red in 24 matches. Also, 5 penalties awarded this season.
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ColDale added 14:32 - Apr 4 his first game was also Keith Hill's debut as a Dale player
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