Not only are Harrogate Town making their Spotland debut on Saturday, but so too is match referee, Neil Hair.

The Peterborough-based official is in his fourth season on the National List and this will be the third time we have seen him at a Dale match.

Just before Christmas 2018, Neil was in the middle for Dale’s 2-1 win at Southend, which came courtesy of a late Callum Camps’ goal.

We next saw him at Doncaster in February 2020, where Ollie Rathbone scored a late equaliser in a 1-1 draw, just a month before all football stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak.

Mr Hair’s first EFL appointment was Oldham v MK Dons in August 2018 and since then he has refereed entirely in the two basement divisions, as well as a number of games in all three cup competitions.

His matches have tended to be controversy-free and Neil is certainly not one of those referees whose name keeps cropping-up in managers’ post-match comments.

Saturday will be his 22nd game of this season, with the previous 21 yielding 69 yellow cards.

Neil’s most recent match was the relegation six-pointer between Scunthorpe and Oldham last Saturday, while just short of a fortnight ago he was on Sky TV refereeing Portsmouth v Charlton in League One.

Photo: Action Images

johanndonner added 05:22 - Feb 24 The Huddersfield-based referee had been promoted to the Football League list at the start of last season, but had to wait until August 12 before he was given his first assignment, which came in the shape of a 1-1 draw between Walsall and Gillingham. I will visit https://www.resumesplanet.com/cover-letter.php source to get help in my cover letter. His next appointment came a week later when he took charge of Cambridge United's 2-2 draw at Wycombe Wanderers, and since then Hair has gone on to officiate 24 matches during the course of the campaign, only missing out on four weekends.

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