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#Post#: 104892--------------------------------------------------
Tom Kirk - Southampton vs Ipswich
DIR By: TA_Ref
Date: April 28, 2026, 3:43 pm
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What an advert of championship football that was. Two brilliant
teams going head-to-head going all out. Thoroughly enjoyable
watch.
Tom Kirk done well and let the game breathe with minimum
intervention. Some cracking advantages at times to keep the game
flowing.
Only contentious moment was a wild challenge by Greaves on the
edge of his own box. Personally I thought reckless was just
about right but if he made contact any higher up than he did
then he would’ve been in huge trouble.
As I said, thoroughly enjoyable (but stressful) game to watch.
Well done all 3 teams who had a great evening.
#Post#: 104894--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Kirk - Southampton vs Ipswich
DIR By: HChip
Date: April 28, 2026, 3:55 pm
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Great game for Kirk and team!
Will be looking forward to getting into Ipswich bright and early
on Saturday! Will be a good day out for all in the league with 3
teams that can get promoted automatically - Ipswich, Millwall,
Middlesbrough! Will certainly be a spectacle for all, especially
neutrals!
#Post#: 104895--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Kirk - Southampton vs Ipswich
DIR By: BrandonWhitesRef21
Date: April 28, 2026, 4:08 pm
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Delighted to hear praise for Tom and his team on here
immediately after full time!
Fantastic game and I saw a social media post about Championship
referee of the season on Monday, which had Lewis Smith as the
chosen one. Not a bad referee by any means.
I know many will say Farai Hallam but for me Tom has been the
best, out of what I have seen with my own eyes - on TV and in
person.
Don't think he will be in the championship for too long.
#Post#: 104901--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Kirk - Southampton vs Ipswich
DIR By: TheThingFromLewes
Date: April 28, 2026, 4:42 pm
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I think the big boys will be attendance for the final
championship games.
With Southampton out of it for the automatic places, I expect
SG1 at Ipswich and Millwall, with Hallam or Kirk at Wrexham.
#Post#: 104948--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Kirk - Southampton vs Ipswich
DIR By: TA_Ref
Date: April 29, 2026, 10:59 am
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Social Media is a real horrible place sometimes.
I just went onto YouTube and watched a reaction video about the
game last night where the title is ‘Ipswich played with 12 men’
and one of the first sentences this person says is ‘That referee
was a disgrace to the league’.
I mean I simply have no words… Well I do have words that would
probably lead me to getting banned from the forum.
No wonder officials struggle sometimes with the abuse that they
receive. They must be made of serious mettle because I’m not
sure I could keep calm and carry on if I saw comments like that
on social media after putting in an excellent performance like
Tom Kirk did last night.
#Post#: 104953--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Kirk - Southampton vs Ipswich
DIR By: HChip
Date: April 29, 2026, 12:16 pm
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I do agree that some comments are quite stupid from clueless
football fans, but referees are also quite unlikely to sit there
scrolling through Twitter (main culprit) reading comments about
themselves. They are probably given rough advice as to what to
do with Social Media, but I doubt many referees even read the
horrible comments about themselves. I doubt many of them will
have Twitter for that exact reason, and the only video they will
watch of the game is the match footage and possibly the
highlights at a stretch.
Another point also may be that they will know how they did and
don’t really take to heart if people say they had a bad
performance, as they know what their feedback is from coaches
and observers, so Kirk will know he had done well so won’t take
any notice if he has read comments.
#Post#: 104958--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Kirk - Southampton vs Ipswich
DIR By: bmb
Date: April 29, 2026, 1:18 pm
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They are specifically told not to go onto SM. A few have
LinkedIn or Insta accounts but tend to limit who can see their
posts on the latter and are pretty much inactive on the former.
I've always said to those I know, at any level, "Don't accept
criticism from someone you'd never take advice from". I think
most of them stick to that mantra. Even if they do brush it off
it's still hurtful to see these nasty comments out there and it
does affect them, that builds up inside of them and can knock
their confidence & self-belief. They know if they've had a good
game, poor game, good game with one or two dreadful errors, they
don't need to be hearing it from coaches, players, fans or lower
level refs for that matter.
There's a couple I will point out to them a particularly
good/praising post about them because I think it's nice for them
to see it's not always negative and they've agreed to not
venture anywhere near any form of SM. I screenshot things rather
than give them links!
#Post#: 104960--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Kirk - Southampton vs Ipswich
DIR By: rustyref
Date: April 29, 2026, 1:28 pm
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Where senior referees have social media accounts they are almost
always obfuscated, for example using first name and middle name.
Exception being LinkedIn, but generally no one is likely to
post abuse on there as it would seriously limit your future
career prospects.
#Post#: 104961--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Kirk - Southampton vs Ipswich
DIR By: TA_Ref
Date: April 29, 2026, 1:30 pm
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To be fair, I don’t believe that referees are overly affected by
any of the criticism that they could receive but you do never
know where it might come from and all of a sudden it’s just
there in front of you. You could do all you can to never try and
see it but we’ve seen times where potentially family members
receive the abuse too which is always too far.
It just bugs me as a football fan wherever I see it. Last night
was one of the best championship games I’ve watched in a long
long time and yet all that seems to be spoken about by a small
proportion of fans is the referee. Can we not just praise the
football match for the spectacle that it was without having to
hound out the referee? (Despite having a good performance). But
then again, deep down I know that this mindset is not going to
change for a very very long time.
#Post#: 104963--------------------------------------------------
Re: Tom Kirk - Southampton vs Ipswich
DIR By: HChip
Date: April 29, 2026, 1:51 pm
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I tend to congratulate officials that may have had exceptional
games, or got exceptional appointments, cup finals. You see
players being congratulated and loved on Social Media and
whatnot, flooded with messages of love and support. I think
referees deserve love too, maybe not to the level of being
flooded with thousands of messages because that may be abit
unnecessary and over the top, but I can guarantee you referees
even appreciate 1 or 2 positive messages. In a role where you
can turn into the main focus of a game in 2 seconds, they are
extremely underpraised and deserve a lot of love and support.
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