Dale’s next midweek game against Gateshead on Tuesday will be refereed by DALE BAINES.

That’s right, Dale will be refereed by Dale!

The Liverpool official is in his second full season refereeing in the National League, but due to the aligning of the list with the EFL, the majority of his appointments have been in League One, League Two and the various cups.

Dale’s most recent game was Wealdstone v Ebbsfleet just over a week ago, while his last EFL appointment was Rotherham v Shrewsbury on 8th February.

He has already refereed Gateshead this season, overseeing their 1-0 home defeat of Wealdstone back in October, while his previous Rochdale games were away at Hartlepool (won 3-2) and at home to Maidenhead (won 1-0) last term.

Dale has significant footballing pedigree in that he is the brother of former Wigan and Everton defender Leighton Baines, who made 582 appearances at club level before retiring in 2020.

His 24 matches this season have yielded 79 yellow cards and one red card, which was shown in that recent game at Wealdstone.

Photo: Action Images

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