Cobblers bring in Toon defender
Northampton Town have signed 6ft 1in Newcastle United defender Ben Tozer on a loan period to run initially up to and including the Hereford United game on 16 October.
Born in Plymouth, Tozer began his career as a youth player at his local club but former Argyle youth coach David Byrne, who by this point had taken up a similar role at Swindon Town, persuaded Ben to join him in Wiltshire.
He signed for Swindon in the summer of 2007 and made his full debut in the Carling Cup match with Charlton. In November 2007 Tozer had a four-day trial with Everton, before moving to Newcastle United for £250,000 in January 2008, penning a four-and-a-half year deal with the club. On 11 May, against Everton, Tozer was named on the substitutes bench, but did not play.
In September 2009, he made his Newcastle debut starting alongside Steven Taylor against Peterborough United in the Carling Cup. He went on to make his league debut in a 2-1 home win against Doncaster Rovers, coming on as an 87th minute substitute for Jonás Gutiérrez.
"I am pleased to have got Ben in," said boss Ian Sampson. "He is a player with an excellent pedigree and someone who will do us a good turn over the next few weeks. He was really keen to come and already his attitude to get stuck in and do well for the club has impressed me. I tried to bring him in last season but it didn't quite work out then and I am pleased it has now. We obviously have a lot of injuries at the moment and we have been in need of a central defender and I would like to thank both Chris Hughton and Colin Calderwood at Newcastle for their help. Ben is a highly rated young player who will improve us over the next few weeks and he will hopefully gain some experience that he will find useful."
Tozer is available for the Carling Cup game at Liverpool on Wednesday.
Posted by: Northampton Town Football Club
