Ollie Yates is the man in the middle when Dale entertain Northampton Town on Saturday.

The Staffordshire official is in his sixth season on the referees’ list and this will be his sixth Dale appointment, but the second this term.

His previous Dale game was in October when Mr Yates was at the Crown Oil Arena for the disappointing 1-0 loss to Crawley.

In April 2018, Ollie refereed the 1-1 home draw with Bradford, where an injury-time fumble by Josh Lillis allowed Charlie Wyke to stab home the equaliser for The Bantams.

Eight months later, he was back at the Crown Oil Arena for the goalless draw with Luton, while in December 2019, Yates oversaw the 2-1 FA Cup replay win at Boston that earned Dale a home tie versus Newcastle in round three.

He then returned to the Crown Oil Arena in December 2020 for our encounter with Gillingham, where a disastrous first half performance saw Dale trail 3-0 at the interval, before eventually losing 4-1.

Ollie’s first two seasons at this level were blighted by injuries, which also afflicted him early this term as that Dale v Crawley match was his first of the campaign (contrary to what it says on Soccerbase).

He has since been a regular at games up and down the land and last Saturday at Sunderland v MK Dons, Mr Yates refereed his 18th match of the season, in which he has shown 62 yellow cards and three reds.

One of his previous appointments was Northampton’s 3-0 home defeat of Carlisle at the end of October.

Photo: Action Images

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