This Friday’s live Sky Sports encounter with local rivals Bolton Wanderers will be officiated by Simon Hooper from Wiltshire.
This is Simon’s first game of the season in charge of the Lilywhites, although he has had fourth official duties earlier in the campaign.
Last season he took charge of PNE three times. Those games were against Fulham on Gentry Day in March, for the League Cup victory over AFC Bournemouth back in September and the league win at Bristol City in December 2016.
The two games the previous season that he took charge of were also long distance games, the 1-1 draw at Ipswich and our 3-0 win at Charlton Athletic back in October 2015.
The match official, who made his first ever trip up to Deepdale from his Wiltshire base for the clash with Walsall in January 2015, is an experienced referee and is now in his tenth season on the EFL list and he has taken charge of PNE in games at Crawley, Southampton and a previous trip to AFC Bournemouth as well.
So far this season he has taken charge of 17 games, issuing 49 cautions and one red and this will already be his third Bolton game of the season, having refereed their opening day of the season at the Macron Stadium, when Leeds United won 3-2 and their 3-0 EFL Cup defeat at West Ham United in mid-September.
The assistants on Friday night will be Daniel Robathan and Akil Howson, whilst Geoff Eltringham will be in the fourth official role.