Making his second visit to Deepdale this season, but his first since our opening day fixture, is match official Tony Harrington.
Tony took charge of the Lilywhites’ 1-0 victory over Sheffield Wednesday in Alex Neil’s first competitive game in charge of the club, but has not been the referee of a PNE game since.
Last season he also took charge of two North End games, the 1-1 draw away at Nottingham Forest and the thrilling 4-2 win over Brentford at Deepdale.
Tony, who is now in his seventh year on the EFL list has also been to PR1 on a number of previous occasions in the past, including the 2014/15 penalty win against Oldham Athletic in the JPT and the club’s last two home league games against Notts County, including a 2-0 win over the Magpies at Deepdale in February 2014.
This will be his third game in charge of Derby this season, having officiated their Boxing Day goalless draw at Hull City and their six-goal thriller at Reading in February, when the two sides shared the half dozen goals and the Rams ended the game with ten men after the sending off of Chris Baird.
Those are two of Tony’s 30 games so far this season, in which he has issued 107 cautions and sent off just five players, including the County defender.
He will be joined by assistants Mark Dwyer and Mark Russell, whilst Jeremy Simpson will be the fourth official.