Ben Toner will make the short trip over from Darwen to referee Dale’s home game versus Port Vale on Tuesday.

The official is in his second season on the referees’ list and this will be his second appointment at the Crown Oil Arena.

We last saw Ben in December at Dale’s 3-2 win over Scunthorpe, while just over a year ago, he refereed our 2-0 loss at Shrewsbury.

A 31-year-old science teacher in Fleetwood, Ben had a busy first campaign on the National List, refereeing 28 matches, the majority of them in League One and League Two.

He has been even busier this term and before the weekend, when he was in the middle at Mansfield v Exeter, Mr Toner had refereed 32 matches this season, showing 105 yellow cards and four red.

His most high-profile appointment was the televised FA Cup third round replay between Lincoln and Ipswich and Ben actually returned to Sincil Bank a couple of weeks ago for The Red Imps’ FA Trophy semi-final second leg against York City.

Photo: Action Images

TVOS1907 added 17:14 - Apr 4 Ben Toner has been replaced by Seb Stockbridge for tonight's match.
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