I WAS about six years old when I was first taught football’s offside rule.

On a day out with my paternal grandparents we’d stopped off at a Little Chef for lunch, and to pass the time while we were waiting to be served I decided I wanted to learn more about the game I had grown to love.

At the risk of giving my age away somewhat it was in the mid-80s, when the game, and certainly the offside rule, was much less complex and complicated than it is now.

Armed with salt and pepper cellars, napkins and cutlery, my grandad marked out the necessary positions on the football pitch.

It took a few run-throughs – and like any child I had lots of questions – but eventually I grasped that if a player, in or out of possession, was caught between the defence and the goalkeeper when the ball was played, the linesman’s flag would be raised.

Little did either of us know at the time that I would go on to make a living out of covering the beautiful game. But my grandad loved newspapers, and loved football, so I guess it was almost inevitable.

He always marvelled at me working in a ‘man’s world’.

It’s never really something that dawned on me, or something I dwelt upon. It’s my job and I love it, and unlike some of my peers I’ve never encountered any barriers, like being stopped from going down tunnels or going pitchside to get interviews just because of my gender.

I haven’t managed to avoid the odd suggestion that I should stick to cooking, or cleaning, or ironing, or washing up (original!), but I take them on the chin.

I’ve been the subject of a few lewd comments too, but sadly that’s life, not just football life, and I don’t let it stop me in my work.

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?

But something happened at Wembley the other week that stopped me in my tracks.

The ‘mixed zone’, where the masses congregate for post-match interviews is not a place for the feint hearted at the best of times. It’s a dog-eat-dog, survival of the fittest environment.

For the England v Chile friendly, in which Jay Rodriguez made his Three Lions debut, although there was disdain for non-national reporters in general, the room was also almost 100 per cent male.

I saw only two other women, both of them behind a camera. None were asking the questions.

There are some gifted and wonderful female footballer writers. I have long admired the work of the Guardian’s Louise Taylor, for example. Janine Self was an early role model for me too.

There are many others who get frequent football bylines in the national papers, such as Laura Williamson (Daily Mail), Alyson Rudd (The Times), Vikki Orvice (The Sun) and Ann Gripper (Daily Mirror), to name a few.

Yet none were on England duty that night.

Not since the England B game at Turf Moor have I worked at an international match, so this may not always be the norm, but I imagine it is.

Numbers of women in football are on the up, but we need more recognition in the higher echelons.

It is still too uncommon to see women in press boxes, particularly in Burnley’s Premier League season. If the Clarets get back there this season, I can’t imagine much will have changed four-five years on.

In the many years since I first learnt the offside rule to now, I’d have hoped for greater advancement in this field, and I’ll keep banging that drum.

It all stops for me tomorrow, though, while I celebrate my grandad’s life with my family, his friends and mine, and remember his influence on my career.

He was a champion of ‘Women in Football’ and proud of how far I’d come. But as a collective, there’s still a long way to go.