John Brooks will take charge of Dale’s Carabao Cup third round tie at Manchester United on Wednesday.

The Leicestershire official is in his fourth season on the National List and this will be his sixth Dale appointment in that time

We first saw him at Millwall in September 2016 when Dale won 3-2 thanks to a last-minute Ian Henderson penalty, shortly after the home side had been reduced to ten men!

In 2017/178, John refereed three Dale matches, all of them ending in draws.

He was in the middle for the 0-0 home draw versus former EFL club bury at the end of August in which he sent-off The Shakers’ goalkeeper, Joe Murphy, for handling outside the area.

Surprisingly, Bury managed to get the decision overturned on appeal!

Seven weeks later Brooks refereed our 2-2 draw at Fleetwood in which the home side’s Wes Burns was sent-off for a bad tackle on Callum Camps.

Surprisingly, Fleetwood managed to get the decision overturned on appeal!

We then saw him at Scunthorpe in March 2018, where Camps scored in the 1-1 draw that gave Dale a crucial point on their way to League One survival. There were no red cards in that match!

John’s most recent Dale game was this March when he oversaw Brian Barry-Murphy’s first match as manager, a nerve-jangling 2-1 home defeat of Shrewsbury.

Mr Brooks is regarded as one of the EFL’s best referees and after just three seasons on the list he was promoted to the Select Group 2 cohort of officials.

This means he referees mainly in the Championship, with his last game at that level being Sheffield Wednesday v QPR at the end of August.

John also took charge of Nottingham Forest v Derby in the last round of the Carabao Cup and was recently fourth official at Bournemouth v Everton.

Before Saturday, when he was refereeing Accrington v Blackpool, Brooks had overseen six matches this term, showing 23 yellow cards.

Photo: Action Images

D_Dale added 14:22 - Sep 24 "In 2017/178, John refereed three Dale matches, all of them ending in draws." A long season, that.
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