“Lost for words. Rest easy gaffer. One of the good guys. Thoughts are with Debbie, Harry, Ellie and family. Gone way too soon xx.”
So said now retired Republic of Ireland international Niamh Fahey on her Instagram account after word came through of the death of her former Liverpool manager Matt Beard at the age of just 47.
The news left all in the English game shaken, Beard having been a powerful advocate for women’s football in a near 20-year coaching career at the highest level. The Londoner had spells in charge of Millwall, Chelsea, Liverpool, West Ham, Bristol City and Burnley, as well as a stint in the United States’ National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) with Boston Breakers.
Along the way, he was a mentor to many an Irish player, among them Fahey, who was his captain at Liverpool, and Leanne Kiernan, who he signed twice - first for West Ham, from Shelbourne, and later for Liverpool.
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Sunday’s Women’s Super League game between Aston Villa and Liverpool was called off out of respect to Beard, others going ahead with a minute’s silence in advance.
Republic of Ireland head coach Carla Ward has talked before about turning to Beard for advice during a difficult spell during her time in charge of Villa, and how helpful he was despite her being a WSL rival.
The Irish-Beard links are nigh on endless - on a sombre weekend, the one piece of good news for Ward was the return to club action of Ruesha Littlejohn, who played for him during her time at West Ham.
The midfielder had been without a club since leaving Shamrock Rovers in June, but she was signed last week by Crystal Palace in the WSL2, coming on in injury time time to make her debut for them in Sunday’s 2-1 win away to Nottingham Forest.
At 35, Littlejohn is hardly Ireland’s future, but Ward could do with her experience for next month’s Nations League play-off against Belgium, not least when concerns about another midfielder, Denise O’Sullivan, linger. She missed yet another game for North Carolina Courage at the weekend, having not played for her club since limping out of a mid-August game.
In better news, Caitlin Hayes, who’s had an up-and-down time of it since joining Brighton from Celtic last January, a good chunk of that time spent on the bench, made her first start of the season for the WSL club - and she scored in their 4-1 win over West Ham, heading home a Fran Kirby corner.
Back home, Athlone Town came from behind against DLR Waves to maintain their one point lead, with a game in hand, over Shelbourne at the top of the table. With just four games to go, the defending champions’ next fixture, on Saturday, should be interesting - they play Shels.
