Dale’s home game versus Tamworth on Tuesday will be refereed by the familiar figure of DARREN DRYSDALE.

With the National List and National League groups of officials being aligned into one list from this season, we are seeing some referees who officiate more regularly in the EFL and Mr Drysdale is the latest.

Now the longest-serving referee on the list, having been appointed for the 2004/05 campaign, this will be Darren’s 25th match involving Dale and his 13th at Spotland, the last of which was our 2-1 home defeat to Doncaster in October 2022.

His first Rochdale appointment was way back in October 2004 when he was in the middle for a 3-0 home win over Macclesfield.

We have also seen him three times against former club bury, the games being a 3-1 win for The Shakers at Spotland in November 2006, the televised goalless draw at Gigg Lane in March 2014 and bury’s 1-0 FA Cup defeat of Dale in December 2015.

Another notable Dale match refereed by Mr Drysdale was at Chester in October 2005.

Dale won 3-2, but the game is remembered more for the early collision between Matt Gilks and Gregg Blundell which wouldn’t have looked out of place at a 1982 World Cup meeting between France and West Germany!

The full list of Darren’s Rochdale matches as a referee is:

Oct 2004 Rochdale v Macclesfield W 3-0
Oct 2005 Chester v Rochdale W 3-2
Nov 2006 Rochdale v bury L 1-3
Jan 2007 Wycombe v Rochdale D 1-1
Feb 2008 Rochdale v Peterborough L 0-2
Sep 2008 Rotherham v Rochdale D 2-2
Feb 2011 Tranmere v Rochdale D 1-1
Apr 2011 Rochdale v Brentford L 0-1
Oct 2011 Rochdale v Chesterfield D 1-1
Mar 2013 York v Rochdale D 0-0
Dec 2013 Rochdale v Bristol R W 2-0
Mar 2014 bury v Rochdale D 0-0
Apr 2015 Rochdale v Leyton Orient W 1-0
Aug 2015 Rochdale v MK Dons W 2-1 (Friendly)
Aug 2015 Blackpool v Rochdale W 2-0
Dec 2015 Rochdale v bury L 0-1 (FA Cup)
Mar 2017 MK Dons v Rochdale D 2-2
Oct 2017 Rochdale v Northampton D 2-2
Apr 2018 Rochdale v Plymouth D 1-1
Aug 2018 Burton v Rochdale W 2-1
Jan 2019 Peterborough v Rochdale L 1-2
Sep 2019 Peterborough v Rochdale L 0-6
Nov 2019 Bradford v Rochdale W 2-1 (Leasing.com Trophy)
Jan 2022 Oldham v Rochdale D 0-0
Oct 2022 Rochdale v Doncaster L 1-2

So far this season, the Lincolnshire-based has refereed 13 games, in which he’s shown 40 yellow cards. Halifax v Gateshead and Oldham v Solihull Moors are Mr Drysdale’s other National League appointments since August.

Photo: Action Images

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