Occasional Championship official Ben Toner gets the second QPR game of his season this Boxing Day as the R’s head to Swansea.
Referee >>> Ben Toner (Lancashire)
Assistants >>> Andrew Fox (Warwickshire) and Hristo Karaivanov (Sutton-in-Ashfield)
Fourth Official >>> James Durkin (Dorset)
QPR 0 Sunderland 0, Saturday November 2, 2024, Championship
I was starting to think even Fritzl would struggle to find use for this Celar, and then suddenly events transpired in his favour. First, Jobe Bellingham tried to snap his leg, and that seemed to wind him up a bit. Usual thing, player chasing a runaway touch of his own, high and over the ball, into the shins. Initially I thought the referee had been sold a red card by the sadly hysterical player reaction we have to go through every time anybody puts a tackle in these days – Ilias Chair filling the Lewis Travis hands-on-head West End musical role in this instance - but it was a bad challenge, Bellingham knew it, Sunderland barely complained, and actually he spent time making sure Celar was okay before going off. I’ve got a lot of time for this lot, however much angelic shithouse Luke O’Nien tries to turn me against them.
Things, sadly, rather petered out from there on in. Sunderland tucked in deep, tight and narrow in good shape, and even excellent referee Ben Toner’s early carding of their obvious time wasting didn’t flex them too greatly.
QPR: Nardi 6; Dunne 6, Cook 6, Field 6, Ashby 5 (Santos 44, 5); Varane 7, Morgan 6, Madsen 6 (Andersen 81, -); Smyth 6 (Saito 68, 6), Celar 5, Chair 5
Subs not used: Aoraha, Dixon-Bonner, Bennie, Kollie, Lloyd, Shepperd
Yellow Cards: Celar 78 (foul)
Sunderland Moore 7; Hume 6, Mepham 7, O’Nien 7, Cirkin 6; Neil 7, Browne 6; Roberts 6, Bellingham 4, Mundle 5 (Connolly 64, 5); Isidor 5 (Hjelde 92, -)
Red Cards: Bellingham 56 (serious foul play)
Yellow Cards: Moore 70 (time wasting), Roberts 90+6 (foul)
Referee – Ben Toner (Lancashire) 8 I thought he was really good. Obviously as the beneficiary of a straight red card I would say that, and at the time from my seat in F Block I thought this was a referee who isn’t a regular at this level being swayed by the now sadly typical histrionics of players pretending everything is a war crime. But it was a red card. Bellingham knew it straight away, apologised to Celar, and took his medicine. The referee got the big decision right. He got almost all of the little decisions right as well. Love a yellow card for time wasting when it’s still early enough in the game to affect the behaviour. A fine display, deserves more games at Championship level on this evidence.
QPR 2 Norwich 2, Saturday February 10, 2024, Championship
Ashley Barnes, these days so large if he stands still too long he risks someone colonising him and holding elections, collapsed embarrassingly. An afternoon spent entirely harassing novice referee Toner finally rewarded with the most generous of free kicks.
Referee Toner, to this point absolutely fine, seemed to take against Rangers, and Dykes in particular, with a string of bizarre calls. Seven minutes were added and suffered through. Tick following tock following tick following tock. The whole thing was exhausting. Why can’t we just have a nice time?
QPR: Begovic 6; Cannon 6, Cook 6, Clarke-Salter 7, Paal 6; Hayden 8 (Dykes 86, -), Colback 7, Hodge 6 (Andersen 66, 6); Willock 5 (Smyth 66, 6), Armstrong 6 (Frey 66, 7), Chair 7 (Dixon-Bonner 90, -)
Subs not used: Dunne, Archer, Fox, Larkeche
Goals: Colback 27 (unassisted), Frey 77 (assisted Andersen)
Yellow Cards: Chair 79 (foul), Clarke-Salter 87 (foul)
Norwich: Gunn 5; Stacey 6 (Sorensen 68, 4), Hanley 5, Gibson 6, Giannoulis 5 (McCallum 86, -); McLean 8, Sara 7; Fassnacht 5 (Rowe 58, 7), Barnes 5, Sainz 7 (Hernandez 86, -); Sargent 7 (Nunez 68, 5)
Subs not used: Gibbs, Long, van Hooijdonk, Batth
Goals: McLean 48 (assisted Sara), Sargent 62 (assisted Stacey)
Yellow Cards: Gibson 25 (foul), Mclean 52 (foul), Hanley 76 (delaying restart), McCallum 90+7 (foul)
Referee – Ben Toner (Lancashire) 6 Thought he did really well for 75 minutes or so and I had him on a high seven at that stage, but he gave some weird and wonderful stuff in the closing stages of the game and seemed to take against Lyndon Dykes entirely when he came on. This happened with Steve Martin at Carrow Road as well but I’ve absolutely no idea why these referees allow themselves to be pursued around the pitch, harassed and undermined by Ashley Barnes like this. That fat mess would shout in my face like that once, and if he did it again he’d be sampling the early bath water. There’s a Norwich booking for, I think, over celebrating in the wake of the second goal that doesn’t seem to have been picked up in the stats yet, see pic…
It’s been a steady progression up the ranks for Toner, who was promoted from non-league into the EFL for the 2015/16 season. He did seven seasons in Leagues One and Two before finally being given a Championship game in April 2022 when Bristol City beat Hull 5-0 at Ashton Gate. One more second tier fixture (Huddersfield 0-0 Swansea) followed in 2022/23 but he’s finally started getting semi-regular games at this level from December onwards.
Toner has really racked up the games, and the cards, this season with 19 appointments already, six of those in the Championship. He’s shown a chunky 102 yellows (5.36) and three reds, topped out by nine yellows at Bolton 0-2 Exeter and Sheff Wed 3-2 West Brom, then more recently ten yellows and a red at Crewe’s 1-1 draw at home to Bradford. Last season he finished up with 164 yellows (4.8) and two reds in 34 games. This is his third Swansea appointment of the season following their 1-0 loss to League One Wycombe in the League Cup and a 2-1 away win at Derby more recently. The Swans are 1-1-1 from three games with this official.
In 2017 Toner was taken off a League One game between Blackpool and Portsmouth in the wake of a High Court ruling against the Oyston family’s deliberate asset stripping of the club. The PGMOL insisted the switch to Premier League Jon Moss was because of the extra scrutiny on the game and the need for a more experienced official, and nothing to do with Ben Toner’s name which had caused much mirth among the Pool faithful in light of the verdict.
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