It’s the FA Cup this weekend against Barnet from the National League who knocked out our League 1 rivals Burton Albion in the 1st Round 1-0.
For this game (which is now on Sunday) we have Ben Toner from Lancashire and I have wonderful snippet of info about Mr Toner, it is comedy gold, and I promise you this is 100% true.
A while back when Blackpool fans were in battle with Karl Oyston the owner of Blackpool FC, whereby they were accusing him of very dodgy dealings, including asset stripping, wrecking their club, non-payment of players and staff and god knows what else, someone at the FA made a faux pas to end them all by appointing Ben Toner as the ref on the day Seasiders fans planned a mass demonstration against Oyston in their home fixture against Portsmouth. It quickly became an internet sensation and went viral…well up North anyway…. until someone pointed out to the FA that Ben Toner looked very much like “Bent Owner” and it probably wasn’t fitting for Mr Toner to be officiating at Blackpool at such a tense time. Although the FA denied that was the reason Mr Toner was taken off that game and reassigned him to another fixture, you couldn’t make it up.
We digress, the last time we came into contact with Mr Toner was January 18th 2020 when we lost 1-0 at home to Sunderland, and before that in happier times when we beat them lot at home 2-1 in September 2019, and in case you need reminding Nombe and Healey scored the goals.
Mr Toner has officiated on 11 occasions this term and has dished out an impressive 39 yellow cards, 1 red card, and given 3 penalties.
Ref Toner is joined by Stephen Brown and Darren Blunden on the flags and Oliver Jackson is the 4th Official.
