Dean Whitestone is the man in the middle for Dale’s FA Cup second round tie versus Boston United on Sunday.

The Northamptonshire-based official, who is an officer in the Metropolitan Police, hasn’t officiated at a Dale home game since November 2014 when he was in charge of our 3-0 loss to Oldham.

However, we did see Dean at the EFL Cup second round tie at QPR three years ago, while early last season he refereed our 2-2 draw at Fleetwood.

On Easter Monday 2014, Whitestone oversaw the 2-1 win at Bristol Rovers that ended a poor run of April results that threatened to derail Dale’s promotion hopes, but one of his most notable appointments was at Spotland for the final home game of the 2006/07 season against Hartlepool.

Pools arrived knowing victory would almost certainly hand them the League Two title, but Dale won 2-0 in a match of three red cards, two penalties and a mass brawl!

Dean’s full list of Dale appointments is:

Feb 06 Cheltenham v Rochdale D 1-1
Apr 07 Rochdale v Hartlepool W 2-0
Oct 07 Grimsby v Rochdale W 2-1
Apr 08 Rochdale v Notts Co W 4-2
Dec 08 Port Vale v Rochdale L 1-2
Sep 11 Notts Co v Rochdale L 0-2
Dec 11 Sheffield U v Rochdale L 0-3
Jul 13 Rochdale v Preston (F) D 1-1
Apr 14 Bristol R v Rochdale W 2-1
Nov 14 Rochdale v Oldham L 0-3
Aug 16 QPR v Rochdale (LC) L 1-2
Aug 18 Fleetwood v Rochdale D 2-2

New to the Select Group 2 list of officials this season, Mr Whitestone had refereed nine Championship fixtures and two in the EFL Cup before midweek, when he was due to take charge of Millwall v Wigan. Those 11 games saw him show 33 yellow cards.

Photo: Action Images

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