Like Thomas Kirk on Boxing Day, Andrew Kitchen will referee Dale for the third time since July when we travel to Doncaster Rovers on Thursday night.

The County Durham official was in the middle for our pre-season friendly at Darlington, as well as the opening fixture of this season at home to Crewe.

Mr Kitchen is in his second campaign on the National List and last term he visited Spotland twice in the space of a month.

In November 2021 he refereed Dale’s final group game in the Papa John’s Trophy against Radio Bolton Wanderers that ended in a 3-0 win for “the best team in League One”.

A month later, Andrew returned for the FA Cup second round tie versus Plymouth Argle, in which the visitors recorded a 2-1 victory.

Before the festive fixtures, he had refereed 17 games this season, showing 40 yellow cards and one red card.

Photo: Action Images

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