Lydia Bedford blazes trail for women as new Brentford Under-18s head coach

Lydia Bedford has been announced as Brentford Under-18s head coach in a landmark appointment. She has left her position as an assistant coach with Arsenal Women and is believed to be the first woman to take charge of a Premier League under-18s boys’ team.

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The announcement on Brentford’s website said that Bedford, a former manager of Leicester Women, will work alongside Jon-Paul Pittman, who will join from Forest Green as assistant coach. Brentford’s director of football, Phil Giles, said: “We undertook an extensive recruitment process for these roles. Lydia and Jon-Paul were the two best candidates.”

Two other women with prominent roles in men’s academies in England are Manisha Tailor, the assistant head of coaching at Queens Park Rangers, and Hannah Dingley, Forest Green’s academy manager. When Dingley took that role in 2019 she became the first woman appointed as the head of an English Football League club’s academy.