Former West Lancs League referee makes Premier League history

Natalie Aspinall, 40, will become only the third woman to officiate in the top flight more than 10 years after Sian Massey-Ellis last made the grade.

Natalie, from Blackpool, will act as an assistant referee in the Premier League next season after a successful year in the Championship and Women’s Super League.

She started out in adult football as a 16-year-old running the line on the West Lancs.

The mother-of-two, whose husband Richard referees in the National League North, will now take up the role full-time, which will include VAR.

She has previously officiated on the Women’s FA Cup final three times – once as a referee and twice as assistant – and represented England on the FIFA list at two women’s World Cups in Canada in 2015 and Germany in 2011, as well as Euros and Champions League matches.

Natalie initially took up the whistle after encouragement from her dad William Walker, who was a referee for 25 years across Blackpool and the North West.

Natalie, who is mum to Emilia, 8, and four-year-old Edie, told The Blackpool Gazette in 2015: “It was my dad being a referee that initially convinced me to go into it.

“My dad told me that I could referee for an hour on a Sunday morning and earn the same as a paper round.

“Originally, I did refereeing for the money. But then I really enjoyed it and I wanted to do it to prove people wrong and show them there was a place for women in refereeing.

"To be a referee in open age football was quite daunting at first.

“It was a big step up but my dad would come to watch my games and support me.

“It was a case of learning how to referee at that level.

“I did have difficult times when I experienced doubts.

“Like players, you don’t always have a good game. You have good and bad experiences and you have to try and remember the better ones.

“You are only human and make mistakes like anyone else.

“Every referee has doubts at some point.

“With encouragement and support from friends, I carried on refereeing.

“I am thankful I did because of how my refereeing career has gone.”

After leaving the West Lancashire League, Natalie went on to referee on the Northern Premier League before choosing the assistant referee pathway which led her to the Football League and now the Premier League.

The first woman to reach the Premier League as an assistant referee was Wendy Toms in the 1990s.