All at Tooting & Mitcham United were shocked and saddened to hear of the sudden death of our former reserve team manager Matt Beard at the tragically young age of 47.
Having previously been reserve team manager at nearby Kingstonian, Matt joined Tooting & Mitcham in the same role at the start of the 2001/02 season, replacing Mark Hams who had been promoted to first-team coach. First-team manager Keith Boanas was responsible for the appointment, and had a lot of faith in Matt. He soon proved this to be justified, starting the season with a 7-0 victory at Tonbridge. He continued to do a very good job as we just missed out on promotion to the Suburban League Premier Division, finishing in third position, just a point behind runners-up Carshalton Athletic. We also reached the Premier Cup semi-final stage.
In the summer of 2002, he was offered the position of assistant manager (to the first-team) at Hampton & Richmond Borough, which he accepted.
Following his time there, he made the move into Women’s football at Charlton Athletic Ladies, where he was reunited with Keith Boanas once again. When Keith made the move to Millwall Lionesses in June 2008, he took Matt with him as his assistant. When Keith resigned after six months in the post, Matt succeeded him as manager. He guided the team to the FA Women’s Premier League Southern Division title which brought with it promotion to the top tier for the 2008/09 campaign. Having achieved this honour, he moved on to Chelsea Ladies for the 2009/10 season, on the recommendation of former Arsenal Ladies stalwart Casey Stoney, who had played under Matt when he was assisting Keith Boanas at Charlton. He remained there until 2012, just after he’d guided the club to the 2012 FA Women’s Cup Final.
Matt then moved on to take a similar position at Liverpool Women for three seasons, in two of which he was named FA Women’s SuperLeague Manager of the Year. He left in 2015, moving over to America for one season to take up a Head Coach position with the Boston Breakers.
Returning to the UK in 2018, he held the reigns at West Ham United Women, then enjoyed a second (four year) spell with Liverpool Women before taking charge at Burnley Women earlier this year, a role he stepped down from in August, to pursue other opportunites.