The match official for Wednesday night’s trip to Carrow Road to face Daniel Farke’s Norwich City is experienced referee Gavin Ward.
Gavin, from Surrey, is in his 12th season on the EFL lists, although he has never refereed at Deepdale! In those 12 seasons he has also only taken charge of North End on three previous occasions.
The last of those was the clash at Elland Road against Leeds United in December 2015, when Jordan Pickford was controversially sent off, only to have the card rescinded on appeal – Mathew Hudson that day making his debut for the Lilywhites.
His other games in charge of PNE were back in 2013, at Brentford and in 2010 at Leicester City. Whilst he has done two Norwich games, a 2-1 win over Barnsley in 2010 and a 2009 1-0 triumph over Brentford, both at Carrow Road.
This will be his fourth game of the season, having so far issued seven yellow cards and no red cards in his three games, the last of which being Queens Park Rangers’ 2-0 home win over Peterborough United in the Carabao Cup last Tuesday. Last season he took charge of 45 games and gave out 128 cautions and six red cards.
On Wednesday night Nigel Lugg and Ian Cooper will be the match official’s assistants, whilst the fourth official will be Lee Vanamore.
Remember, if you can’t make the long trip down to Carrow Road on Wednesday night, for the very first time you will be able to watch the full game live on iFollow PNE in the UK and Ireland – a £10 match pass is available, with commentary coming from Jonathan Breeze and Brett Ormerod, click here for details.