Meet The FA Cup Ref - PNE v Latics

Another away day for the Latics on Friday, a short trip up the M6 for an FA Cup 3rd round tie at Deepdale for a Lancashire derby with Championship high flyers, Preston North End, the referee for the game is scheduled to be West Midlands based official, Oliver Langford.

Langford joined the National List of referees in the 2008/09 season. His first game, coming on the 16^th August, it was a League Two affair at Spotland, Rochdale running out 2:1 winners over Barnet.

Since that first game, impressively, Langford has clocked up over 600 games, issued 1781 yellow and 93 red cards whilst awarding an equally impressive 149 penalties.

Previous Games

This will be Langford’s 16^th Latics game, his last one came early on this season back in August a 2:2 draw away at the New York Stadium, Paul Mullin scoring late on to grab a point, Francois, Wright and Costelloe all picking up yellows.

Part of the Select Group 2, Langford now mainly officiates in the Championship.

Ollie Langford’s Last Six Latics Games

Date	Competition	Result	Latics Cards
23 Aug 2025	League One	Rotherham 2:2 Latics	3Y
26 Dec 2023	Championship	Middlesbrough 4:1 Latics	0
05 Mar 2022	League One	Latics 1:0 AFC Wimbledon	2Y
11 Feb 2020	Championship	Latics 2:2 Middlesbrough	6Y 1R
09 Feb 2019	Championship	Rotherham 1:1 Latics	3 Y
17 Oct 2020	League One	Charlton 1:0 Latics	4 Y

Oliver Langford Card Watch 2025/26

Games – 16

Yellows – 57

Reds – 1

Penalties – 2

Preston North End v Wigan Athletic

Referee – Oliver Langford

Assistants – Mark Stevens & Shaun Hudson

4^th Official – Richard Eley

Grab a listen to the latest podcast featuring a preview of the Preston game.