Referee Steve Rushton is the man in the middle for Carlisle’s first league game at Spotland in almost five years.

The official is in his second season on the league list and this will be the fourth time we have seen him at a Dale game.

In September 2009 he was the referee for our 2-0 win at Darlington, while early in 2010 he took charge of the home match against Crewe, which we also won 2-0.

Five months ago Mr Rushton was the referee for Dale’s first ever league game against Sheffield Wednesday, although this time we lost 2-0.

Altogether Steve has been in charge of 29 games this term, showing 91 yellow cards and five red. His most recent outing was the 2-2 draw between Macclesfield and Accrington a fortnight ago.

Mr Rushton is one of a small group of officials who has followed his father onto the Football League list.

Jim Rushton was a referee from the late-1980s to the early-1990s and appeared at Spotland many times, as well as taking charge of several away games, including a Littlewoods Cup tie at Burnley in September 1988.

REFWORLD PROFILE: http://www.refworld.com/referee/2309/1

Rochdale Polls