Dale’s home game against Swindon Town on Saturday will be refereed by the superbly named ALAN DALE.

No, he’s not the bloke who played Jim Robinson in Neighbours, but an Ipswich-based official who has been refereeing on the National List for the past two seasons, having joined the National League list in 2017.

This will be Alan’s fourth Dale match, but the first at Spotland.

In August 2024, he was in the middle for our 1-0 win at Yeovil thanks to Connor McBride’s injury time goal. Four months later, Alan refereed Dale’s 1-0 defeat at Dagenham & Redbridge, while last January, he oversaw our 1-0 victory at Solihull Moors, where Joe Pritchard netted the winner in added time.

So for the gamblers among you, get your money on a 1-0 scoreline with a goal in injury time!

With the lists of officials being aligned into one before last season, Mr Dale has added games in the EFL to his career record, the first of which was MK Dons v Shrewsbury in January.

This season he has refereed three times in League Two and another three matches in the National League, the most recent being Yeovil v Solihull Moors a fortnight ago.

His seven games this term have produced 22 yellow cards and one red card

Photo: Action Images via Reuters