Dale’s third visit to Wealdstone on Saturday will be refereed by LEE SWABEY.

This will be Mr Swabey’s ninth Dale appointment in his 11 seasons on the National List, but his first outside of the EFL due to the officials now covering matches across League One, League Two and the National League.

We first saw the Plymouth official at Gillingham in January 2018, where Dale went down to a 2-1 defeat, and then the following November he was in the middle for a 3-2 loss at Shrewsbury.

That was the first of three Dale games for Mr Swabey in 2018/19, as he also refereed the 2-0 defeat at Luton in March 2019 and the 4-1 reverse at Portsmouth a month later.

Lee’s next Dale game eventually brought victory from one of our most famous performances of recent times.

That was at Southend early in the 2019/20 campaign, where the 3-0 win for Brian Barry-Murphy’s men featured the splendid Ian Henderson goal that was broadcast around the world to showcase the passing move that opened-up The Shrimpers’ defence.

Mr Swabey’s was then in charge at Portsmouth on Good Friday 2021 when he was a late replacement for Brett Huxtable in a match in which we were beaten 2-1.

Just over a year after that, Lee was in the middle at Newport on the final day of the 2021/22 season, although his afternoon was cut short through injury and he watched on from the fourth official’s position as Dale recorded a 2-0 win.

His last Dale outing came after a long journey from Devon to Spotland in April 2023, where Dale went down to a 3-0 defeat to Bradford City as relegation to the National League loomed large.

Saturday will be Mr Swabey’s third game of this term, with the others being Bromley v Barnet and Swindon v Shrewsbury in League Two.

Photo: Action Images

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