Refwatch Preview: Exeter (h)

First-year referee Jeremy Simpson is the man in the middle for Dale’s home game against Exeter City on Saturday.

The Carnforth-based PE teacher was promoted to the league in time for this season having progressed through the ranks in recent years.

This culminated in him refereeing last season’s Blue Square Premier League play-off final between York and Luton at Wembley.

Prior to his promotion, Jeremy had been an assistant referee on the Premier League and also a FIFA official, which meant he travelled overseas to ‘line’ at European and international matches.

Jeremy’s last visit to Spotland was as a linesman for our 1-0 win over Scunthorpe last season, while in 2010/11 he was on the line for the FA Cup tie against FC United and our first game in League One at home to Hartlepool.

Mr Simpson has had a busy start to his Football League career and Saturday will be his 14th match of the season.

He started with Cheltenham’s 2-0 home defeat of Dagenham on the opening day and was most recently at Tranmere v Walsall a couple of weeks ago. He has also already seen Exeter this term, refereeing their 4-2 win at Oxford in September.

In total, Jeremy’s 13 games have yielded 42 yellow cards and two red.

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