Female refereeing is 'tokenism for politically correct idiots,' declared the then Luton Town manager Mike Newell after his team were denied a penalty by a female assistant referee.

That scathing attack back in 2006 provoked much controversy, but the Football Association gave female referees its full backing and said 'English football needs more Amy Rayners'.

Only three per cent of registered referees in Lancashire are women, which Dean Mohareb, Referees Development Officer, describes as 'disproportionately low'.

“We found that a higher number stayed in the game and re-registered the following season on a female-only course, as opposed to a mixed course,” explains Dean.

“Evaluations from females on mixed courses also concluded that some did not feel able to fully participate as they were not comfortable in that environment.”

Natalie Walker, Lancashire’s leading female referee, will be setting an example herself by talking to participants on the course about her experiences.

“It’s not easy for any referees, but it’s especially difficult for women, because players do use the fact of your gender to pick on you,” said Natalie.

In the past, she has suffered abuse at the hands of male players, but says highly-charged footballers will use any weakness – from height to hair colour – to pick on referees and that gender should not stop women from becoming good at their profession.

In fact, Natalie believes being a woman can be a strength.

“In my experience, the presence of a female referee on the pitch means that foul language drops and male players get less aggressive,” she added.

She also hopes that participants will be encouraged to persevere as referees after seeing what she has achieved in her career so far.

Miss Walker, 25, began refereeing at the age of 15 and has travelled to Iceland, Germany, Italy and Portugal on refereeing assignments, as well as officiating in The FA Women's Cup Final and Premier League games.

Unlike some young referees, Miss Walker was never a big football fan and it took her father, a referee himself, a year to persuade Natalie to become a referee. Her chief motivation was that there is more money in refereeing than doing a paper round.

“At first it was my determination that kept me going,” added Natalie.

“Lots of people told me I wouldn’t or shouldn’t be a referee, so I wanted to prove to people that I could do it.

“Now it’s just a part of who I am,” adds Natalie, a teacher. “My friends are referees, so it’s my social life too.”

Natalie is hoping to progress to the national list of referees very soon, and has recently been appointed to the FIFA Women’s Assistant Referees Panel.

Mohareb added: “These appointments show that regardless of gender, any official who has the dedication, commitment, talent and levels of fitness to progress has the opportunity to do so.”

The FA is not only seeking to recruit more female referees either as last year, The FA trained approximately 7000 referees, but it also lost 7000 referees.

“This training course is one of many support mechanisms being put in place to try to retain newly qualified referees and offer them a ‘safe’ environment in which to officiate during the early stages of their refereeing careers,” explained Mohareb.

“Lancashire FA is now the only county in the country to have two full-time referees officers, which shows how seriously the county want to address this problem.”

The course, which took place during the February half-term break, included tutoring, a starting pack of a whistle and red and yellow cards, registration as an FA referee, and Child Protection training where appropriate.

Participants then refereed six games, two of which were watched by an experienced referee.