The referee for Chelsea’s Carabao Cup third round clash against Grimsby Town on Wednesday night has been confirmed.
And it's a good omen for Frank Lampard as looks for a first home win since returning to the club in the summer.
Keith Stroud will take charge of the game at Stamford Bridge and he has previous with the new Blues head coach.
Last season when Lampard was at Derby County, he had two games with Stroud as the official.
Both were at home against Sheffield Wednesday and Nottingham Forest in the Championship, with the Rams avoiding defeat in each game.
Although, they didn’t win either as both ended in draws - a result which would not go down too well among the Blues faithful against Grimsby.
Given that Strout is usually assigned to Championship games, he's only ever refereed Chelsea twice.
Ironically they were both in the League Cup and at Stamford Bridge.
The first of which was in 2008 and the Blues crashed out on penalties against Burnley, but did best Bristol Rovers 3-2 three years ago.
James Mainwaring and Rob Smith will be the assistant referees.
The fourth official is Scott Oldham.
Lampard has vowed not to take the League Two outfit lightly and is set to name a strong side which includes Reece James and Callum Hudson-Odoi.
"[Hudson-Odoi and James will] be involved on Wednesday night, they'll be involved," Lampard told the Fifth Stand. "We certainly need to look at players who haven't been playing as much against Grimsby.
"We'll pay them due respect, but it certainly is minutes for certain players who haven't been there.
"Callum is on the road to recovery. It was a long injury so he needs game time.
"And Reece, similarly, so yeah there'll be some different changes but I expect the same level of performance.
"And what I don't want to lose is the feeling of tonight [against Liverpool], the feeling of how we can be and it's important we keep that."
