THE 'beautiful game' was made even more beautiful when a football league derby was refereed by glamour girl Michelle Marsh.

The Blackburn and District Sunday League Division Two match between Heys Inn FC and Ossy FC attracted a larger than normal, and almost totally male, crowd after word got out that the page three model would be pitchside at the match in Pleckgate, Blackburn.

Michelle, 23, was the star prize in a mens' magazine competition, to find the football team which deserved her visit the most and after thousands of entries, Heys Inn were picked.

Michelle refereed the first 20 minutes of the clash before taking over as a referee's assistant.

Danny Mallon, 24, from New Lane, entered the competition on the team's behalf and although a sign pitchside from his team mates read "Danny Mallon is our hero," his girlfriend wasn't so delighted to be told he had won.

Danny said: "I had forgotten that I had entered it until someone from the magazine phoned me up on Wednesday to say we had won and that Michelle would be refereeing our match on Saturday.

"I rang all the lads up and I don't think half of them believed me but those who did were all really excited.

"My girlfriend said she was going to come up and watch the match to keep her eye on me but she had nothing to worry about.

It was just a bit of fun."

Michelle however took her responsibilities seriously and had been taking tips on refereeing from former Premiership ref Jeff Winter for over two weeks.

She said: "We have been talking about the off-side rule and using salt and pepper pots and a bottle of HP sauce to demonstrate it.

"My boyfriend also plays football for Oldham so I have been watching them and it is nice now to be able to understand what is going on more."

However, one Ossy FC player would have been disappointed to see Michelle's boyfriend, William Haining, on the touchline cheering her on as he had been going on the sunbed all week to get a tan in the hope of catching her eye!