KATIE Patterson nearly gave up the whistle soon after she picked it up, but on Tuesday night she will become the first female referee to officiate an A-League team when Melbourne Victory play Rockdale City Suns at Kogarah in the FFA Cup.

“At the end of my first year I wasn’t going to continue,” Patterson said.

“Some of the comments I got when I first started ... ‘Go put your makeup on’, or, ‘What are you doing here? Where’s your handbag?’. I was 14 or 15 years old and these were adults on the sidelines saying things like that. I’ve grown a lot from the experience and I think it’s shaped the way I act and respond to people today, so in a weird way I’m kind of grateful.”

Thankfully her potential was recognised and she began to receive more support. A decade on and Patterson is finally being acknowledged as a top official, but she believes there are still challenges facing women who are toying with the idea of becoming referees.

“One of the deterrents is the environment we have to work in and that starts at a junior level,” she said.

“There’s an obligation not only for the referees to support each other, but for the clubs to support the referees. It’s about creating that supportive environment to get people to want to play this critical role in the game, because you can’t have the game without it.

“I think women should get involved. There’s a social aspect and it adds so much to you as a person because I think it challenges you in so many ways. It’s a really intellectually stimulating thing to do — you’re always on the run, making decisions, and I think it challenges who you are as a person because you’ve got to respond to different situations differently. I like the personal challenge of having to back myself in certain situations.”

After years of refereeing in the W-League, Patterson became the first female to officiate a NSW men’s NPL match last year between Sydney United and the Sutherland Sharks.

She admits the players are sometimes a bit taken aback, but Patterson believes there is no reason why female referees, who train just as hard as their male counterparts, shouldn’t be given more opportunities at the top level.

“It’s important we look at women’s football in a way that says the women’s game is not the ceiling for women officials,” she said.

“For me it’s about the W-League having a really strong season and then starting to see how I can move my career forward from that point. The next logical step is setting sights on the A-League and contributing to officiating in that capacity, and then from an international perspective looking to gain my FIFA accreditation.”