Refwatch Preview: Leyton O v Dale
Referee Darren Sheldrake will hope for better weather when Dale travel to Leyton Orient on Saturday.
The last time he took charge of one of our matches was at Bristol Rovers in March 2013 when the game was in doubt right up to kick-off due to heavy overnight and morning rain at the Memorial Stadium.
Mr Sheldrake eventually passed the pitch fit, although Dale were left wishing for a postponement after losing 2-1.
Prior to that, our only other match with Darren as the referee was early in the 2009/10 promotion season.
The Surrey-based official refereed Dale’s 2-1 win at Northampton in which Will Buckley scored a spectacular goal from outside the area.
A PE teacher at Teddington School in Middlesex, Mr Sheldrake is in his sixth campaign on the league list and generally referees in League One and League Two, with occasional Championship fixtures thrown in.
One of those was last weekend when he was the man in the middle at Norwich v Birmingham.
Including that match, Darren has refereed five games this season, showing 13 yellow cards and three red.
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