Craig Hicks is the man in the middle when Dale travel to Wycombe Wanderers on Saturday.

The Surrey official, who is in his third season on the referees’ list, oversaw two Dale games last term with contrasting results.

In November he was the referee for our trip to Oxford, where Keith Hill’s much-changed Rochdale side put on a fairly abject performance to lose 4-2.

However, it was a different story on Easter Monday when he took charge of Dale’s visit to Bristol Rovers.

While Ethan Hamilton’s late goal gave Dale a 1-0 win, results elsewhere meant we were practically safe from relegation after a remarkable turnaround in form and results.

Craig’s first league appointment in August 2017 was Port Vale v Wycombe and since then he has refereed entirely in the two basement divisions, as well as at a number of games in all three knockout competitions.

This season he has overseen 20 matches, showing 59 yellow cards and four red, two of them to Sunderland players at Peterborough in August.

His most recent game was AFC Wimbledon v Southend on New Year’s Day.

Photo: Action Images

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