Refwatch Preview: Dale v Bury
Wednesday, 3rd Oct 2007 17:53

We begin our build up to this weekend's game with Bury by looking at the man one set of fans will be blaming it all on from 5pm on Saturday evening.

Can you imagine living in Barrow? No, not the popular former Dale manager, but that place in Cumbria.

I mean, just HOW far is it from everywhere else? That road off the M6 seems to go on forever and I’m sure before one pre-season friendly there we passed Canada before finding the ground.

Referee Mike Pike must feel the same. He has to drive along that road twice before every game he referees and then he has to travel many more miles down the M6 before reaching the ground.

I’d love to see his expenses claim!

This is only Mr Pike’s second game of the season, but don’t worry, he’s not a novice in the same way that idiot was at Shrewsbury.

Mr Pike has been injured for a while and has just returned to full fitness, with his first game back being Tranmere v Northampton last Saturday.

All told, this is his 11th season as a league referee and Saturday will be his 12th Dale game.

His previous Dale matches are:

20 September 1997 Rochdale v Hull C won 2-1
3 January 1998 Mansfield T v Rochdale lost 0-3
22 August 1998 Carlisle U v Rochdale won 1-0
30 January 1999 Rochdale v Hartlepool U lost 0-1
5 April 2000 Rochdale v Torquay U drew 1-1
26 March 2002 Rochdale v Plymouth A lost 1-3
14 December 2002 Rochdale v Hartlepool U won 4-0
8 February 2003 Rochdale v Oxford U won 2-1
25 October 2003 Rochdale v Swansea C lost 0-1
24 April 2004 Kidderminster H v Rochdale won 1-0
19 February 2005 Macclesfield T v Rochdale lost 0-3

Overall that’s a fairly consistent record, so it’s hard to use it as a basis for Saturday.

To be fair, though, Mike Pike is what I would term a stalwart referee; he just goes about his business with little fuss, attracting hardly any attention.

He has refereed several high profile Football League games over the years, though, with Saturday’s local derby joining that list.

And of course, he is the only referee whose christian name rhymes with his surname.

Which reminds me of the famous Mr Lunt from Burnley in January 1990!

5 famous Mikes