Occasional Championship official Ben Toner gets the second QPR game of his career this Saturday as the R’s host league leading Sunderland.

Referee >>> Ben Toner (Lancashire)

Assistants >>> Hugh Gilroy (London) and George Byrne (Suffolk)

Fourth Official >>> Sunny Singh Gill (London)

History

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…

Stats

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 this season with 13 appointments already, three of those in the Championship. He’s shown a chunky 71 yellows (5.46) and one red, topped out by nine yellows at Bolton 0-2 Exeter and Sheff Wed 3-2 West Brom. Last season he finished up with 164 yellows (4.8) and two reds in 34 games. This is his first Sunderland appointment since their 2021/22 League One campaign in which his three appointments sae them lose 4-0 at Portsmouth, beat Sheff Wed 5-0 at home and win 2-1 at Oxford. The Mackems are 8-1-2 from 11 appointments 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.

The Twitter @loftforwords

Pictures — Action Images

Pictures - Ian Randall Photography

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