After Michael Salisbury refereeing the match versus Barnsley on Tuesday, his father, Graham Salisbury, is in the middle for the home fixture against Walsall on Saturday.

The Preston whistler has been a regular at our games down the years and this will be his 19th Dale appointment, two of which were notable 4-2 away wins.

In March 2010 he was the referee for the 4-2 victory at Accrington which, as it transpired, proved to be the game that took Dale up from League Two.

Eighteen months later, in September 2011, Graham took charge of the 4-2 win at bury, in which Nicky Adams scored and was then sent-off for picking up a second yellow card after removing his shirt and waving it round his head!

This is Mr Salisbury’s first senior Dale match at the Crown Oil Arena since December 2016 when he was in the middle for the Checkatrade Trophy tie at home to Chesterfield.

However, he did visit just a month ago for the pre-season friendly against Middlesbrough, which Dale won 3-2 after trailing 2-0.

In terms of league action, we last saw Graham on the road in March when he was in the middle for Dale’s 1-0 win at Rotherham.

The full list of his Dale matches is:

Oct 01 Rochdale v Southport (LDV) W 2-0

Aug 04 Rochdale v Bury L 0-3

Oct 05 Rochdale v Notts Co W 3-0

Nov 05 Tranmere v Rochdale (LDV) L 2-3

Dec 05 Rochdale v Leyton Orient L 2-4

Apr 06 Notts Co v Rochdale D 1-1

Nov 08 Rochdale v Macclesfield D 1-1

Jul 09 Radcliffe v Rochdale (F) W 1-0

Dec 09 Rochdale v Morecambe W 4-1

Mar 10 Accrington v Rochdale W 4-2

Mar 11 Rochdale v Notts Co W 1-0

Sep 11 Bury v Rochdale W 4-2

Mar 12 Rochdale v Oldham W 3-2

Jan 16 Walsall v Rochdale W 3-0

Feb 16 Rochdale v Millwall L 0-1

Sep 16 Rochdale v Sunderland (CT) D 1-1 (won on pens)

Dec 16 Rochdale v Chesterfield (CT) L 0-2

Mar 18 Rotherham v Rochdale W 1-0

Jul 18 Rochdale v Middlesbrough (F) W 3-2

Before Tuesday, when he was due at Bristol Rovers v Portsmouth, Graham had refereed three games this term, showing 11 yellow cards. His appointments have been at the diverse locations of Exeter, Shrewsbury and Peterborough.

Ref Ratings 2018-19
Darren England - Grimsby (a) 6.6
Michael Salisbury - Barnsley (h) 6.4
Darren Drysdale - Burton (a) 6.0
Dean Whitestone - Fleetwood (a) 5.2
Anthony Backhouse - Peterborough (h) 4.7

Photo: Action Images

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