Saturday sees Dale play in the fourth round of the FA Cup for the first time in 11 years and the man in the middle is one of the Football League’s top performing officials this season.

Wiltshire-based Simon Hooper is the referee and his appointments to date suggest he has been receiving good ratings from assessors and clubs.

Early in the campaign he refereed Bristol City v Bristol Rovers in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy, which was followed by the East Midlands derby between former European Champions (twice) Nottingham Forest and Derby County.

Simon also oversaw Capital One Cup ties between Hull and Huddersfield in round three and Birmingham v Stoke in the fourth round.

He was also in action in the last round of the FA Cup, taking charge of Bolton v Blackpool, while last Saturday he was at Loftus Road for QPR v Huddersfield in the Championship.

Dale last saw Mr Hooper in October when he refereed the 3-0 defeat at Portsmouth, which looks worse as the weeks pass!

Prior to that Simon was the man in the middle for the 1-0 win at Plymouth in March 2011 and the 3-1 victory at Brentford earlier that season when the main talking point was the second yellow card shown to Jason Kennedy for celebrating with the fans after scoring the third goal.

Technically the referee was right and probably mindful of the eye in the stand rating his every move.

Fortunately, no real harm was done as Dale held on, while JK only missed a JPT tie at Port Vale.

Mr Hooper is in his sixth season on the referee’s list and his only other Dale game was at Dagenham in January 2009 where we lost 3-2.

Altogether this season he has refereed 20 games, showing 73 yellow cards and two red.

Photo: Action Images

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