WHEN Gordon Williams was diagnosed with bone disease as a teenager, all he could see ahead was the end of his promising football career.

But little did the 18-year-old realise that he would one day be commonly known in Bolton as "Mr Football" -- the man responsible for teaching girls to play the beautiful game.

Gordon is now 68 and just over seven years after retiring from coaching will next month see the 12th anniversary of the first official schoolgirl football team in the town.

With the growing profile of the female game and the success of British film "Bend it Like Beckham", which featured girls' football, Gordon reflected on how attitudes have changed since those early days.

Gordon was a promising young footballer who had played semi-professional for a number of clubs when he was diagnosed with bone disease.

It led to the end of his playing career, but Gordon refused to give up on the game he loved and started coaching boys' teams -- and later his son and three daughters.

One of his daughters, Jeanette, now aged 26, was a natural and became a celebrity in the 1980s when she joined "The Bolton Jugglers" -- a ball skills team set up by her dad. He said: "We only really had three girls who took to it at the start. People used to say to me: 'Girls can't play soccer. They can't keep the ball up in the air!'

"I never agreed with that. Jeanette proved that they could do the skills and she became a role model for the others."

Jeanette became the only girl ever to demonstrate her soccer skills on the pitch at Wembley and appeared on numerous TV shows.

But although the Bolton Ladies Football Team had been running for decades, there were no teams for young girls which would feed the senior level.

Then in 1990 Bolton Council approached Gordon and asked him to put together a female team for the 1990 Manchester Youth Games.

"Attitudes seemed to have changed and more girls wanted to play football, but there was no team and no structured league for them to play in," said Gordon.

"This would be the first year that girls from all over Greater Manchester had played against each other in a competition. People were saying it wouldn't happen, but it did.

"At the trials, scores of girls who used to go to the early soccer schools turned up. We couldn't believe the response."

He formed the Bolton Metro Ladies, comprising girls aged 11 to 14, only four weeks before the contest. They walked away with the title.

They soon became affiliated to the Women's Football Association, the first All Girls Soccer School was founded in Bolton, and they travelled all over the world playing football.

Gordon later went on to be instrumental in founding the first ladies' league, the Cheshire Alliance Super League in 1993, but disaster struck just days before its launch.

The Football Association decided to bring in Rule 21, which means girls could only play together within a two-year age band, meaning the teams who had joined the new league would have to be split up and re-formed.

But the league was re-structured with two tiers, under 17s and under 14s teams, and later an under-12s side.

"It was like an avalanche, there was no stopping the girls by this stage despite what had happened. It was actually a blessing in disguise because we ended up with three teams."

By the time Gordon retired in 1995 there were more than 50 female footballers with the three Bolton teams playing in the league. The teams have since merged with Bolton Ladies to form Bolton Wanderers Ladies FC.

Gordon has written an autobiography about his footballing experiences and has created a detailed archive which charts the history of schoolgirl football in Bolton.

"People talk about women's football coming out now, but they don't realise it's been here for years in Bolton -- we lead the way in a sense."

Gordon's archives are available to view at Bolton Library by prior appointment.

"Women can play football just the same as men. They can kick the ball the same as men, head it the same as men, and be just as aggressive.

"But as I reflect on 12 years, I realise that the success of the game is down to the parents and players who supported it. Together we proved those people who said girls couldn't play football wrong.