David Rock will referee Dale for the fifth time when we travel to South Wales to take on Newport on Saturday.

The Hertfordshire official is in his fourth season on the National List and his previous four Dale appointments haven’t yielded much in the way of success.

In December 2019 he refereed our trip to Gillingham in which MJ Williams was sent-off minutes before the home side scored the only goal of the game with time running out.

The following November, David was in the middle for Dale’s midweek trip to Oxford, where Matty Lund gave us the lead from the penalty spot, only for The U’s to hit back and win 3-1.

In March 2021 he made his only Spotland appearance for a thrilling home game versus Peterborough.

Posh took a 2-0 half-time lead, but a fantastic second half display saw Dale turn the game on its head to lead 3-2 with seconds remaining.

Unfortunately, the defence switched off and Peterborough won and converted a late, late penalty to earn a point from a 3-3 draw.

Mr Rock’s last Dale appointment was at Leyton Orient in March where he was a replacement for Rob Lewis. Alex Newby gave Dale the lead, but The O’s went on to win 3-1.

So far this season, David has refereed eight matches, showing 27 yellow cards. His most recent appointment was Gillingham v Sutton last weekend.

Photo: Action Images

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