Ben Toner will referee Dale’s final home game of the season against Sutton United on Saturday.

The Darwen official has been a regular at our matches since he joined the National List in 2015, the most recent of which was the 1-1 draw at Crewe in February.

A science teacher at Fleetwood High School, Ben’s first Dale game was at Shrewsbury in March 2016, where we lost 2-0 after a disappointing display.

In 2018/19 we saw Mr Toner three times, including the last home match of the campaign when Dale defeated Southend 1-0 to confirm their League One status.

He was also the man in the middle for the 2-1 Carabao Cup loss at Middlesbrough early in that season, as well as the 1-0 win at Huddersfield in the same competition a year later.

Ben’s most dramatic Dale appointment came in September 2017 when two injury time goals helped us to a thrilling 2-1 home win over Doncaster.

All told, he has refereed 14 previous Dale games:

Mar 2016 v Shrewsbury (a), L 0-2
Dec 2016 v Scunthorpe (h), W 3-2
Sep 2017 v Doncaster (h), W 2-1
Jan 2018 v Lincoln (h, CT), L 0-1
Feb 2018 v Wigan (a), L 0-1
Aug 2018 v Middlesbrough (a, CC), L 1-2
Oct 2018 v Bradford (a), W 2-0
Apr 2019 v Southend (h), W 1-0
Aug 2019 v Shrewsbury (a), D 0-0
Sep 2020 v Huddersfield (a, CC), W 1-0
Aug 2021 v Liverpool U21 (h, PJT), W 4-0
Jan 2022 v Tranmere (a), L 0-2
Aug 2022 v Sheffield W (a, CC), L 0-3
Feb 2023 v Crewe A (a), D 1-1

Saturday will be Ben’s 37th match of the season and before Tuesday, when he was due at Barnsley v Ipswich, he had shown 107 yellow cards and three reds in his previous appointments.

Those games included Bolton v Plymouth in the Papa John’s Trophy Final at Wembley at the start of this month and Huddersfield v Swansea in the Championship in November.

Photo: Action Images

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