Goodbye to Beard: 'Del Boy' who led Liverpool to glory

Popular coach who believed in the women's game when few did and cared for his players like daughters

- Tom Garry

On a tour around Liverpool's revamped women's training site at Melwood in 2024, of all the grand improvements to the building that Matt Beard could have pointed out with pride, one specific addition meant more to him than any other.

It was a painting of his late father, done by a close friend, attached to the wall in his corner office, and his affection for that gift summed up his deep love for family, which is just one reason why the thoughts of so many people in women's football turned immediately to his wife, children and all of his loved ones, after the shocking news of his death at the age of 47.

The Beard family’s loss is being felt all across the sport on a deeply sad weekend for the women’s game, as he is remembered for his way of making people laugh and his ability to win football matches. Straight-talking in press conferences, but then charming off the microphone, he made time for fans, for fundraising events and for the pub. Some saw him as the “Del Boy of women’s football”, good at finding a bargain in the transfer market and fiercely proud of his London roots, but as a coach he was certainly no plonker - his achievements as a manager make him the most successful women’steam coach in Liverpool’s history and undoubtedly one of the best of the Women’s Super League era. Even before the division was founded in 2011, he was already a key figure in the development of the women’s game and he fiercely championed its growth long before it entered the mainstream.