FOOTBALL chiefs united today and issued a warning about on-pitch violence after an amateur player was jailed for six months for headbutting a referee.

Chairman of the Blackburn Referees' Association, Stephen Blackburn, said he was aware of several incidents this season and the sentencing sent out the right signals and would hopefully stop similar offences.

Last month the Blackburn Combination League banned a player 'indefinitely' for an assault on a referee in a Premier League clash between West View and Ewood Amateurs at Pleasington playing fields.

And the secretary of Lancashire Football Association, Jim Kenyon said: "All players should take note of this sentence and realise that violence on the football pitch will not be tolerated and people will be punished for their actions in one way or another."

Lee Dinsdale, 24, of Lee Street, Barrowford, was today beginning the jail term -- which his girlfriend, Natalie Pennell, 22, of the same address has called "a complete farce."

Peter Owen, a referee for six years, who was the victim of the attack, said he was shocked to learn a young player had been sent to prison and added the news gave him no pleasure.

But he went on: "I feel sorry for the mess he has left behind, but he left me in a mess, as well. Something just touched a nerve with him and he just lost it."

Father-of-two Mr Owen, 47, has had to pay out £2,000 for dental treatment since Dinsdale, playing for the winning team Barrowford United, struck three minutes before what would have been the final whistle in the Craven and District League Division Two match , last October.

Mr Owen, a general manager for a building materials distributor, was left with two teeth and two crowns missing and pouring with blood after Dinsdale shouted not to tell him to shut up and butted him.

Mr Owen had given a penalty to rival team Skipton LMS Reserves in the game at Bullholme Football Playing Fields, Barrowford.

The match, which Barrowford won 3-1, promptly came to an abrupt end without the whistle -- because Mr Owen couldn't blow it.

He then had to dash to hospital, soon began dental treatment but was back on the pitch a week later. The assault has not put him off the game.

A keen footballer all his life, he said he was not going to let Dinsdale spoil his pleasure, although he felt a younger, less experienced referee might never have returned to the game.

Mr Owen, of Barnoldswick, added he had never been subjected to violence before in his years in the game.

Dinsdale's girlfriend Natalie, a nursery nurse, said: "The sentence that Lee has been given does not in any way reflect what he did.

"What Lee did was completely wrong and he knows that, he apologised and offered to pay for the dental costs."

"He is usually a calm person and doesn't get himself into trouble which is why it is so hard to take in."

Sentencing the defendant, now banned from playing for life by the Lancashire Football Association, Judge David Pirie said referees like Mr Owen were entitled to be protected from people like Dinsdale who maybe briefly lost their temper.

Dinsdale, of Lee Street, Barrowford, had earlier admitted assault causing actual bodily harm, at Burnley Crown Court.

Martin Hackett, defending, said Dinsdale acted stupidly in a split second of madness.

Chairman of the Blackburn Referees Association, Stephen Blackburn, said incidents were on the increase and needed to be stamped out.

The former referee, who is now an assessor, said: "This did not happen when I refereed matches, only six years ago.

"It is getting more and more common, and I welcome this sentencing as a positive thing."