Sam Allison is the man in the middle for Dale’s match at Sutton United on Saturday.

This will be the third Dale game refereed by the Wiltshire official, but the first away from Spotland.

In December 2020 he was in charge of our 2-0 home loss to Lincoln City and four months later, Sam was back at Spotland for Dale’s 2-1 win over Swindon Town.

Mr Allison was also appointed to Dale’s home fixture versus Port Vale last December, but that was postponed due to a Covid outbreak at the club.

Sam was a regular at matches in the National League before making the step-up to EFL level ahead of the 2020/21 season.

His promotion made the headlines as he became the first black referee in the professional game since Uriah Rennie 11 years ago. (Sam Allison: Referee 'proud' of promotion to EFL - BBC Sport)

A former semi-professional player who works in the fire service, Mr Allison’s first EFL appointment was Exeter v Forest Green in the Papa John’s Trophy, before he made his league bow at Port Vale v Crawley.

He has since refereed all over the country, with the M5 & M6 getting some hammer last term when Sam had games at places like Harrogate, Rotherham, Bolton, Oldham and Doncaster, as well as more expected venues in the south.

This season has seen him referee 13 matches, in which he has shown 42 yellow cards and three reds. His most recent game was Bristol City v Lincoln City in the Carabao Cup last week.

Photo: Action Images

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