Taking charge of his third Lilywhites game of the season, Geoff Eltringham will be the referee for our Tuesday night trip to the City Ground to take on Aitor Karanka’s Nottingham Forest.
Having officiated our early season game at Derby County, Geoff also took charge of the Boxing Day trip to Barnsley, so all three of his games this season will have been away from Deepdale thus far.
He also refereed one North End game last season, the home clash with our Barnsley, having also done one the previous season, the 1-0 home win over Reading.
The year prior to that he took charge of three PNE games, including the 2-0 home win over Peterborough United in March. The previous season he also took charge of North End twice, both of those at Deepdale - the 1-1 draw with Tranmere Rovers back in November 2013 and then the goalless draw with Sheffield United in March.
The County Durham official is an experienced referee who had taken charge of North End a number of times in the past including the very first game after the departure of Graham Westley, when John Dreyer took the team against an in-form Bournemouth side and ran out 2-0 winners.
He also looked after a thriller back in 2010, when North End overcame Crystal Palace 4-3 at Deepdale.
This will be the match official’s second trip to the City Ground this season, having refereed their 2-1 home defeat to league leaders Wolves back in September, one of his 20 games thus far, where he has issued just 73 cautions and one red card.
For the game, the referee will be assisted by Nick Greenhalgh and James Mainwaring – as he was on Boxing Day - whilst experienced official Andy Davies, who was our referee down at Millwall, will act as the fourth official.