Olivia Smith denied as Arsenal secure WSL draw at Manchester United | OneFootball

Managers Marc Skinner and Renée Slegers paid tribute to the warmth and “larger than life character” of Matt Beard after their teams Manchester United and Arsenal played out a goalless draw on a sombre afternoon for the Women’s Super League.

Less than 24 hours after the news of the death of the former Liverpool, Chelsea and West Ham United manager Matt Beard, at the age of 47, late on Saturday evening, there was a moment’s silence held before kick-off. Manchester United and Arsenal’s supporters then spontaneously applauded on 47 minutes, with the travelling Arsenal fans displaying the words “We love you Beardy” on handheld signs, and after the game, both managers’ thoughts were clearly primarily with Beard’s loved ones.

“Beardy is an incredible human. He has and will continue to leave a legacy in our game,” the Manchester United manager Skinner said. “It’s a very sad day but there’s some solace in knowing that his memory will always live on. He was a larger-than-life character. I think you live on in people’s memories – I know that I’ll keep his legacy alive by talking about him all the time.”

While neither of these two teams were on the long list of WSL sides that Beard managed across his successful career, his influence on the game was so far-reaching that players and staff at both clubs knew him well, not least the new United assistant coach, Scott Rogers, who previously worked on Beard’s backroom team at Liverpool. United’s new goalkeeper coach, Joe Potts, was Liverpool’s goalkeeping coach under Beard, too. They were both visibly emotional during the minute’s silence.

Similarly, Arsenal’s summer signings from Liverpool, Olivia Smith – who started the game – and the substitute Taylor Hinds, had everybody’s respect for their professionalism in such challenging circumstances. Liverpool’s match at Aston Villa, scheduled for midday on Sunday, was postponed.

The Arsenal head coach Slegers praised both players’ professionalism in the circumstances, saying: “We gave them the option to choose what they wanted to do today. It’s very hard, and we’re all very sad. They both said Matt would have wanted them to play. And they went out and did it, and there was a lot of emotion I think [in] the one-minute silence moment. It was really hard for them but it shows a lot of strength from them.”

It was the talented Smith, who transferred to Arsenal for £1m and had played under Beard at Liverpool before he left the Merseyside club in February, who went closest to opening the scoring in the first half, when her powerfully-struck effort from the edge of the penalty area was touched onto the crossbar by Phallon Tullis-Joyce.

That aside, Arsenal’s Daphne van Domselaar was the busier of the two goalkeepers in the first half, saving well from Melvine Malard with fewer than 60 seconds on the clock and later doing well to block a low Jess Park strike after initially fumbling a cross.

The hosts were giving the European champions a tough test, with Park once again showing lots of silky skill as she continues to endear herself to the United fans after her deadline-day switch from Manchester City.

After the break, the home side’s battling midfielder Julia Zigiotti Olme rifled a rising shot narrowly over the crossbar, but Arsenal grew stronger as the game went on. Substitute Chloe Kelly was presented with a golden chance inside the penalty area but could not quite connect with her strike.

At the back for Arsenal, their 18-year-old centre-back Katie Reid produced another solid performance, as she continues to deputise for the injured Leah Williamson, and Slegers will have been delighted by the teenager’s calm handling of the threats posed first by Malard and then substitute Elisabeth Terland, who had scored a hat-trick on this ground three days earlier.

Manchester United’s Ella Toone drove a bouncing effort wide in stoppage time but in the end both teams had to settle for a clean sheet. The game felt very much overshadowed by the weekend’s sad news, however, and Slegers added of Beard: “I felt his warmth as a person.

“It’s such sad news, everyone was really shocked, and I feel very, very sorry for his closest family and his loved ones.”

Header image: [Photograph: Matt McNulty/Getty Images]