The 2018/19 away campaign is bookended perfectly as for the second time this season we are officiated by James Linington, who refereed our first away game of the year!
The Isle of Wight match official took charge of our August trip to Swansea City, and was also the man in charge of the game the previous time we visited South Wales; our December 2017 victory against Cardiff City, when Tom Clarke scored a late winner.
James took charge of three PNE games last season in all, the trio all away from home, with the games being the 2-1 win at Hull City back in September, the aforementioned game at the Cardiff City Stadium and the 1-0 win at Sheffield United in our final away game of last season.
This will be his fourth Bees game of the season and his third at Griffin Park, the most recent being just over a week ago, for their Easter Monday victory over Leeds United in the capital.
Two seasons ago, the referee made his first visit ever to Deepdale for the clash with Wolves back in November and was then the referee in the away game at Derby County back in March.
The season before he was referee of the PNE game at Ashton Gate, when Greg Cunningham scored the winner against his former club and that was his third game in charge of PNE.
The other time he refereed North End was another game in the south of England, when the Lilywhites won 1-0 at Gillingham in the League One promotion season, courtesy of Paul Huntington’s goal in his first start of the season.
This will be James’ 34th game of the season, where he has so far issued 117 yellow cards and three reds cards – two of which came in the same game between Swansea City and Stoke City earlier this month.
He will be assisted by Dean Treleaven and Robert Merchant, with Chris Sarginson acting as the fourth official.