Former Blackpool academy coach to bring the curtain down on stellar non-league playing career

Once all the fond farewells have been paid and the vote of thanks has been given, Matty Urwin will quietly slip away from the limelight on Saturday night and reflect on his football career with not a hint of regret.

The Chorley shotstopper will bring the curtain down on his playing days at Victory Park this weekend when he steps out for the final time for the club’s last National League North fixture of the season against Worksop Town. (kick-off 12-30pm)

Retiring in his early 30s would appear very young, especially for a keeper, but Urwin, who was born in Blackpool, has a burgeoning coaching career well under way.

And being a father to two-year-old Nancy with partner Katie, Urwin admits he has to look to the future beyond playing.

While he would love to carry on for a good few years yet, being handed the opportunity to head the goalkeeping department at his former club Blackburn Rovers’ academy was a full-time opportunity too good to turn down.

Having worked as a coach, alongside his playing commitments, for Fleetwood Town and home town club Blackpool for a number of years more recently, coaching is as much a passion as playing and his new role at Ewood Park feels like the next step in his career development.

It means he will be able to impart the significant knowledge and skills he has gained over the last 25 years of playing and coaching to Rovers’ next budding generation of goalkeepers.

Whether it will be definitively the final time the 32-year-old will be seen between the sticks in a playing capacity, Urwin was non-committal, insisting that he ‘could never say never’.

But the former Blackburn Rovers youth star admitted that it was extremely unlikely that he would ever play again at the same level as the one he has been operating at for the past decade or so with the Magpies.

In nine-years with the club, he has made nearly 400 appearances and became the Magpies’ official club captain following the departure of Andrew Teague in 2020.

He has a promotion on his CV, countless play-off campaigns and who can forget the memorable run to the fourth-round of the FA Cup in the 2020/21 season when Chorley were beaten narrowly 1-0 live on television by Premier League Wolves, after previously knocking out Football League outfits Wigan Athletic, Peterborough United and Derby County.

Over his time at the club, he has also stood out as a man for the big occasion - revelling in the spotlight of a penalty shootout dramas.

Most famously, he saved two spot-kicks in the 2018/19 play-off final as the Magpies sealed promotion, beating Spennymoor Town 4-3 in a shootout following a 1-1 draw.

“It’s a tough one isn’t it,” said Urwin when he was asked if he will never play competitively again.

“You can never say never but definitely for the meantime my last game playing for Chorley for sure at that level of football.

“It’s just due to the level of commitment which my new role is going to take and I just think it will be very difficult to partake in a playing career alongside it.

“To be fair the first few weeks of my new role at Blackburn while still playing for Chorley has probably made me realise that even more.

“I have been playing this season with a niggly foot injury; a lot of people don’t know that. Due to the nature of my job, it’s hard to get rid of injuries on top of playing.

“I would be working during the day, doing double training shifts and then going to play a game at night.

“At my age, I only envisage those injuries, those niggles, getting worse and worse. I have put myself in this coaching role and I want to get the best out of it.

“I may in the future look back and think it was possibly too soon to stop playing. At this moment, it probably is but I will look back at my time at Chorley fondly.

“I don’t think there’s that much more that I could have achieved at the club.”

It was at the age of eight that Urwin - wide-eyed and impressionable - first walked through the doors at Rovers’ training academy with dreams of becoming a professional goalie.

He went onto earn a pro contract, starring in the youth team’s run to the FA Trophy final in 2012.

They would go on to lose 4-1 over two legs against Chelsea in the final, but significantly Urwin had made people sit up and take notice of him.

Despite never appearing in the Football League for Rovers, nor during stints with Fleetwood Town or Bradford City, Urwin found a home from home at Chorley.

His manager former Seasiders striker Andy Preece has openly questioned why Urwin has never been given an opportunity in the Football League, but it’s something which the man himself does not dwell on too much.

“Is it a regret of mine that I never played in the Football League? Yes and No,” said Urwin, who attended St Aidan’s High school, in Preesall.

“Would I have swapped a couple of years here and there playing in the Football league, being a bit of a journeyman, to what I’ve had at Chorley over these last nine years? Absolutely Not.

“I would keep what I’ve had at Chorley in a heartbeat over maybe a couple of seasons of playing for a League Two team or one meaningless season for a club in League One.

“It’s not for me to say why I never got an opportunity. I know the manager Andy Preece has spoken about me possibly should have had a career in the Football League.

“I do believe I was good enough, I was as good as anything in the lower leagues. Obviously there is a reason; people have their opinions.

“Maybe I haven’t put myself in the shop window as I could have done. I have always been very comfortable at Chorley.

“It would have taken a hell of a lot for me to give up my job - my coaching at Fleetwood and then Blackpool - to go and play League football. It would have been a massive risk.

“But going back to Blackburn now, it does feels like a full circle moment, from a young eight-year-old, first starting my journey out, to heading up the academy’s goalkeeping - I don’t think that story gets any better.

“I love coaching - I actually love coaching right the way through the age groups because it makes you fall in love with the game again because you recognise how much the kids love it.

“I really do love developing players and love seeing players who I have coached to go on and do well.

“I have a lot of love for Blackburn, a lot of admiration - it’s where it started for me. It is a hard decision to leave Chorley, but I think it’s the right decision.”

It was while he was a player at Fleetwood Town that Urwin took his first tentative steps in coaching, and over the last few years he has worked at Blackpool.

“Fleetwood was a strange one because I kind of just applied for a role - I didn’t have my coaching badges,” Urwin said.

“They put me through my coaching badges which I am very grateful for.

“I did play there for a time - I was training with the first team but after I left and went to Chorley, I went back as a coach with the academy.

“Ciaran Donnelly - the academy manager at Fleetwood - went across to Blackpool and I went with him, so I was coaching at the academy there.

“I can’t speak highly enough of the people there. It’s my hometown club and I absolutely loved my five-and-a-half years there.

“There’s some absolute brilliant coaches and brilliant people there.”

Urwin’s immediate focus is ending his Chorley career on a high with three points against Worksop at Victory Park this weekend.

It is sure to be an emotional occasion for the Magpies No.1 - his retirement news has even touched the highest echelons of the sport.

One of his best friends in football is Arsenal No.1 David Raya - the pair were together as youngsters at Rovers.

“I speak to David Raya every week or every couple of weeks or so,” said Urwin.

“I am sure he will be sending me a message before the game wishing me well, although I know he’s got a lot going on at the minute with Arsenal.

“He’s probably the one goalkeeper I have been really close with throughout my career.

“I think the main thing for me is that we end the season on a high because this season has not been the best we’ve had.

“Hopefully, I will get a great reception at the end, that will mean the world to me.

“I’ll have my little girl on the pitch with me - I think it will be a great occasion.”