New home for men in black

Evo-Stik Northern Premier League Warrington Town's proud officials are helping to train the referees of the future after teaming with the Warrington Referees Society.

The First Division North club's HG Driver Recruitment Stadium is now home to the Warrington Town Referees Academy (WTRA), providing the perfect training facility and environment for aspiring young match officials.

WTRA Chairman Roy Naylor said: "Fifteen years ago Warrington Referees Society boasted a FIFA referee, a Football League referee and six referee assistants, who were jokingly known as the ‘Warrington Mafia’. Now we have four officials on the contributory league, that’s good, but with the potential and size of Warrington it’s not good enough."

As a regular visitor to the First Division North's league leaders, Naylor held successful talks with the Wire's Managing Director Toby Macormac and the club’s secretary Chris Henshall, an ex-Football League assistant referee, about using the football stadium as a base for their referees. Naylor believes they have found the perfect home and thanked the club for its support and commitment to their work.

He said: "Warrington Town had everything we needed. It has a football pitch, a 3G training facility, access to the prospect of viewing a football match that we could analyse for learning purposes, a room big enough to seat a large group in comfort and a stage, along with that the use of a screen for use to view all the latest DVD’s that the FA send out.

"The only thing that was missing was the next generation of referees. But now with the facilities on offer it is much easier to attract them. Thanks to Warrington Town we are now getting a higher level of retention of referees, because they are enjoying it more, they are training for longer and they want better games so they are now looking at promotion and how to do it.

"Warrington Town’s input other than the use of the facilities, has given this particular Society an identity. Up until last season Warrington Referees Society was just a fish in a pond. Not anymore, some of the guys are basically representing the academy at prestigious tournaments.

Naylor added: "The football club recently made a statement of intent that they want to have Football League status within seven years. Well here at the Warrington Town Referees Academy we hope to also have that same status in refereeing terms, as some of the referees who are here now are showing real potential."

The progress the WTRA is helping to make was recognised by the Football Association when they presented the prestigious National Refereeing Programme Development Award to Paul Dawson, Chairman of the Warrington Junior Football League (WJFL), at the Liverpool County FA's awards evening.

Pictured with the accolade are Naylor, right, with WJFL Committee member and stalwart Reg Peers surrounded by WTRA members Nathan Tugwell, Ben Harrison, Tom de Prez, Dan Tyas and Matty Coles.