Sports broadcaster Jacqui Oatley, the first female commentator on Match of the Day, on why a woman's voice is still so hard for many football viewers to accept

Sports broadcaster Jacqui Oatley was the first female commentator to appear on Match of the Day in 2007. She presents and commentates for the BBC, Five Live and ESPN.

When I first started, there were so few women in the press box at football matches. There was an assumption that you were in there because you were someone's girlfriend or from the press office. I think by now people have got their heads around a woman writing about football, but there's still a huge gap in accepting women as commentators.

Unfortunately a lot of people, not just men but women too, don't trust a woman to give a considered and accurate commentary of a match and know the laws of the game.

Most people grow up with mums and sisters who weren't interested in football and hearing commentary from a female's voice is hard for some people to accept. I don't think it's a conscious thing - it's an innate prejudice. When I made my debut on Match of the Day, all of this came to the fore.

There was criticism from a lot of people who questioned my credentials. It was difficult; I felt isolated. I'm quite strong mentally, but equally, I don't have extra layers of skin. I've had to grow them over the years. But I also had a lot of support. And I realised I just had to take it and not complain about it because it was such a privilege to do.

There was a lot of misunderstanding too - people assumed I'd been offered a job, when really I'd been asked to commentate on one game, in the same way my colleagues had. I didn't see it as groundbreaking. I certainly didn't foresee a big sexism row over it.

There are more female sports journalists now than there were when I first started, but there are plenty of us who are the only woman in the office. It's not surprising that it can be intimidating to work surrounded by blokes who have all known each other for years. That's where Women in Football, which supports women working in the industry, comes into it. Knowing there's someone you can talk to really helps.

I always loved sport growing up. One day, I was off sick from school and the football was on the television and something in me just clicked. I loved it for the game and the strategy. From that point on, I was obsessed. I was 12 years old and started hanging around my local club. My friends thought I was nuts.

I went to an all-girls school and I asked the PE teacher if we could play football. He said no. There wasn't a reason; it just wasn't done. So I taught myself to do keepie-uppies in the garden. My brother wasn't into football, so I played by myself. But I've been back to my school since and now they teach football from an early age.

Things are changing. Women's football is the third biggest participation sport in the country, behind men's football and men's cricket. Since the Olympics, there's been a realisation that sports coverage has been male-dominated for years, and we have to do something about it.

My little girl, Phoebe, is 17 months. If she wants to play football when she's older, then that's great. She can kick the ball around with me in the garden, and then join a club when she's older. We have those opportunities now and that makes me hopeful.