Gavin Ward will referee Dale for the second time in six weeks when we make the long trip to Plymouth on Saturday.

The Surrey official was in charge at MK Dons in September, where Dale lost 3-2 despite taking an early lead through Bradden Inman and later equalising when Matt Done bundled the ball over the line.

This is his Gavin’s 11th Dale appointment since joining the National List in 2007 and his third in the last 12 months as just over a year ago he refereed our 3-0 loss at Swindon.

Ian Henderson missed a penalty for Dale when the score was 2-0, while Joe Bunney was later sent-off, although that red card was subsequently rescinded on appeal to the football people!

Other notable Dale games refereed by Mr Ward include the 2-1 win at Bradford in January 2015 in which Calvin Andrew scored one of his famous last-minute winners.

Bradford boss at the time Phil Parkinson, a southerner managing in Yorkshire, moaned about the referee, saying: “They have dragged him all the way up from Surrey for this match.”

Parkinson’s main gripe was the early dismissal of his goalkeeper, Jordan Pickford, for bringing down Done in an incident that led to a penalty from which Dale eventually took the lead.

Fans may remember Henderson chipped his spot-kick against the bar, but Peter Vincenti slammed in the rebound.

Before that game, we had previously seen Gavin at Cheltenham in October 2013 where two late Henderson goals helped Dale come from behind to record a crucial 2-1 win on their way to promotion.

Ward was also in charge at Wycombe in January 2008 when he awarded Dale an injury time penalty converted by Tom Kennedy to clinch a 1-0 win.

The full list of Gavin’s Dale appointments is:

Jan 2008 v Wycombe (a), W 1-0

Mar 2009 v Barnet (a), L 1-2

May 2011 v Bournemouth (a), W 2-1

Oct 2011 v Bournemouth (a), D 1-1

Aug 2012 v Torquay (a), L 2-4

Oct 2013 v Cheltenham (a), W 2-1

Jan 2015 v Bradford (a), W 2-1

Apr 2015 v Doncaster (a), D 1-1

Oct 2016 v Swindon (a), L 0-3

Sep 2017 v MK Dons (a), L 2-3

So far this season, Mr Ward has refereed 14 matches, showing 44 yellow cards and one red. His most recent game was Southend v Bury last weekend.

Photo: Action Images

Nathaniel82 added 17:51 - Oct 29 The ref was a disgrace on Saturday. Seemed to be weak when the very noisy Argyle fans shouted up but, more tellingly, any time one of our players went near an Argyle player, they would drop to the floor and the ref would blow the whistle. Conversely, all challenges on our players were deemed fair, which, whilst I accept the physical side of the game, the contrasting approaches to these situations was in my view unacceptable.

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