Jeremy Simpson will be in charge of Dale’s third league trip to Fleetwood on Saturday.

This is Jeremy’s second Dale game this season as he was also in the middle when Doncaster won 3-1 at Spotland in November. Fans will recall Dale had Matty Done sent-off that afternoon.

Last term the Carnforth-based PE teacher oversaw Dale’s 3-1 home defeat of Exeter, before returning to Spotland on a depressing Good Friday when we went down 3-0 to Southend.

Mr Simpson was also in the middle for Dale’s 3-2 home loss to Exeter in December 2012.

‘Jez’ finished his non-league career by refereeing the 2011/12 Blue Square Premier League play-off final between York and Luton at Wembley.

Prior to his promotion, he was an assistant referee on the Premier League and also a FIFA official, which meant he travelled overseas to ‘line’ at European and international matches.

Jeremy had previously visited Spotland on linesman duties, most notably in 2010/11 when he was on the line for the FA Cup tie against FC United of Manchester and our first game in League One at home to Hartlepool.

This season, he has refereed 25 games, showing 86 yellow cards and eight red.

His most recent appointment was Tranmere v Dagenham last Saturday, while back in August he took charge of Bolton v bury in the Capital One Cup and hilariously awarded Wanderers a controversial injury time penalty that got them back into the tie.

Photo: Action Images

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