Matthew James Gill (born 8 November 1980) is an English professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

coach and former player. He began his career in 1997, notably representing

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third level of the English football league system. Peterborough United formed in ...

Exeter City Exeter City Football Club is a professional association football club based in Exeter, Devon, England. The team play in , the third level of the English football league system. Known as "the Grecians", the origin of their nickname is subject to ...

and

Bristol Rovers Bristol Rovers FC is a men's professional football club in Bristol. The team competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club is affiliated to Bristol Rovers W.F.C., whose team play in the FA Women's National Leag ...

. Following his retirement in 2014, he moved into coaching, first becoming assistant manager at

Tranmere Rovers Tranmere Rovers Football Club are a professional association football club based in Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1884 as Belmont Football Club, they ...

before taking a post at the

Norwich City Norwich City Football Club is a professional football club based in Norwich, Norfolk, England. The club competes in the Championship, the second tier of English football. The club was founded in 1902. Since 1935, Norwich have played their h ...

academy. He left Norwich in October 2018, joining local rivals

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. The club currently competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of English football. Ipswich Town were founded in 1878 but did not turn ...

as first-team coach to new manager

Paul Lambert Paul Lambert (born 7 August 1969) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who was most recently the manager of Ipswich Town. Lambert played as a midfielder and won the Scottish Cup in 1987 with St Mirren as a 17-year-o ...

. Following Lambert's departure in February 2021, Gill was appointed as caretaker manager before Lambert's successor, Paul Cook, was appointed. Gill left the club in May 2021. He briefly joined Russell Martin at

Milton Keynes Dons Milton Keynes Dons Football Club, usually abbreviated to MK Dons, is a professional association football club based in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, England. The team competes in EFL League Two, the fourth level of the English football leag ...

, before the pair moved to

Swansea City Swansea City Association Football Club ( ; ) is a Welsh professional football club based in Swansea, Wales. It competes in the EFL Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Swansea have played their home matches at ...

in August 2021. He followed Martin to

Southampton Southampton is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. It is located approximately southwest of London, west of Portsmouth, and southeast of Salisbury. Southampton had a population of 253, ...

in June 2023 before leaving the club in December 2024.

Playing career

Peterborough United

Born in Chatham,

Kent Kent is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Essex across the Thames Estuary to the north, the Strait of Dover to the south-east, East Sussex to the south-west, Surrey to the west, and Gr ...

, Gill began his career as a trainee with Third Division side

. On 25 April 1998, during the 1997–98 season, Gill broke through into Peterborough's first team during a 3–1 loss to

Torquay United Torquay United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Torquay, Devon, England. The team currently compete in the National League South, the sixth level of the English football league system. They have played their ho ...

. In over seven years at Peterborough, Gill made 149 first team appearances, scoring five goals.

Notts County

On 3 May 2004, Gill moved to League Two side

Notts County Notts County Football Club is a professional association football, football club in Nottingham, England, which competes in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of Football in England, English football, following promotion and relegation, promotion ...

for the 2004–05 season. After a tough start at

Meadow Lane Meadow Lane is a football (soccer), football stadium in Nottingham, England. It is the home ground of Notts County F.C., Notts County, who have played there since it opened in 1910. The stadium was also home to Notts County Ladies F.C. from 201 ...

, Gill was placed on the transfer list by struggling manager Gary Mills. In November 2004 Mills was replaced by Ian Richardson who immediately removed him from the list. Gill went on to make 57 appearances for the club before being transferred to

Conference National The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National League (English football), National Le ...

side

on 16 January 2006 during the 2005–06 season, on a free transfer.

Exeter City

Since joining Exeter in 2006, Gill quickly established himself as a first-team regular. He was sent off in the 2007 Conference National playoff final for a headbutt, becoming the first player to receive the red card at the new

Wembley Stadium Wembley Stadium, currently branded as Wembley Stadium connected by EE Limited, EE for sponsorship reasons, is an association football stadium in Wembley, London. It opened in 2007 on the site of the Wembley Stadium (1923), original Wembley Sta ...

. In September 2008, he was voted League Two player of the month, after scoring four goals in four games.

Norwich City

Gill agreed to sign for

on 9 June 2009 on a free transfer, which came into effect on 1 July. He made his debut in the opening day 7–1 defeat to

Colchester United Colchester United Football Club is a professional association football club based in the city of Colchester, Essex, England. The team competes in , the fourth level of the English football league system. Founded in 1937, the club spent its ea ...

Carrow Road Carrow Road is a association football, football stadium in Norwich, Norfolk, England, and is the home of EFL Championship club Norwich City F.C., Norwich City. The stadium is east of the city, near Norwich railway station and the River Wensum. ...

. Injury blighted Gill's first season at Carrow Road, and he only managed 10 appearances in all competitions. Gill particularly impressed in the 3–0 win over Bristol Rovers on 1 May 2010. He continued his role of a substitute during the 2010–2011 Championship season, making some appearances off the bench, showcasing his long throw-ins to the fans. Gill was released by Norwich on 1 June 2011. Gill returned to his first club, Peterborough United, on 23 September 2010 on a one-month loan and made his second debut for the Posh at home to MK Dons.

Bristol Rovers

agreed terms with Gill on 6 July 2011. Rovers faced competition for his signature, from clubs including

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. Historic counties of England, Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located ...

and Exeter City, both of whom are League One clubs. On 1 August 2011 it was announced that Gill would be the club captain for Bristol Rovers for the 2011–12 season. Gill returned to his former club Exeter City on 18 October 2013 on loan until the end of the year.

Tranmere Rovers

Gill signed for League Two outfit

on 29 May 2014 on a one-year contract. He signed as a player-coach as Tranmere's second signing by new manager, Rob Edwards.

Coaching career

Tranmere Rovers

On 8 September 2014, he was named as assistant manager, following three months working with the manager at the club. After Edwards was replaced by

Micky Adams Michael Richard Adams (born 8 November 1961) is an English former professional association football, footballer and football Manager (association football), manager. As a player, he was a Full-back (football), full back, and made a total of 43 ...

, Gill left Tranmere by mutual consent on 3 November 2014.

Norwich City

Gill returned to Norwich in 2015 to work in the Academy as a coach. He took on the interim role of Norwich's Under-23 manager for the remainder of the 2016–17 season following the exit of Dmitri Halajko, who left to become head of technical coaching at

Leicester City Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area, and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest city in the East Midlands with a popula ...

's academy in February. Gill's role was confirmed as being permanent on 4 July 2017.

Ipswich Town

On 27 October 2018, Gill left his role at Norwich to join local rivals

as first team coach as part of

's new backroom staff. Following Lambert's departure by mutual consent in February 2021, Gill was appointed as caretaker manager with fellow club coach Bryan Klug as his assistant. Gill oversaw one game while in caretaker charge, a 2–1 away win at

Accrington Stanley Accrington Stanley Football Club is a professional association football club based in Accrington, Lancashire, England, that compete in the , the fourth level of the English football league system. They have spent their entire history playing a ...

, before new boss

Paul Cook Paul Thomas Cook (born 20 July 1956) is an English musician, best known as the drummer and a founding member of the punk rock band the Sex Pistols. He is nicknamed "Cookie" by friends in the punk music scene. Early life and career Cook was ...

was appointed. It was confirmed that Gill would remain as a first team coach under Cook, alongside fellow coach Gary Roberts. However, on 7 May 2021, Gill left the club after Cook outlined his intentions of appointing a new backroom ahead of forthcoming season.

MK Dons

Gill joined up with Russell Martin at

on 29 June 2021. He was handed the role of technical development coach at Stadium MK.

Swansea City

Russell Martin and his MK Dons coaching staff, including Gill, left to join

in August 2021 with Gill serving as technical development coach. He held this role until February 2022, where following the departure of Luke Williams, Gill became the interim assistant head coach at the swans. During pre season preparations ahead of the 2022–23 season, Gill was promoted to assistant head coach permanently.

Southampton

On 27 June 2023, it was confirmed that Gill had joined Martin's backroom staff at

as an assistant head coach. Gill left the club on 15 December 2024 following the sacking of Martin.

Career statistics

Managerial statistics

Honours

Peterborough United *

Football League Third Division play-offs The EFL League Two play-offs are a series of play-off matches contested by the association football teams finishing from fourth to seventh in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. They are part of the annual Engli ...

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

Exeter City *

Conference Premier The National League, officially known as Vanarama National League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in England. The National League is the first division of the National Leagues and step 1 of the National Le ...

play-offs:

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

Norwich City *

Football League One The English Football League One, known as Sky Bet League One for sponsorship reasons, or simply League One, is a professional association football league in England. EFL League One is the second-highest division of the English Football League an ...

: 2009–10 Individual *

Football League Two Player of the Month The EFL League Two Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the player adjudged the best for each month of the season in EFL League Two, the English football league system, fourth tier of English football. Originally na ...

: September 2008

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gill, Matt 1980 births Living people Footballers from Cambridge Footballers from Kent English men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Peterborough United F.C. players Notts County F.C. players Exeter City F.C. players Norwich City F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Bristol Rovers F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. players Tranmere Rovers F.C. non-playing staff Norwich City F.C. non-playing staff Ipswich Town F.C. non-playing staff Swansea City A.F.C. non-playing staff Southampton F.C. non-playing staff English Football League players National League (English football) players 21st-century English sportsmen