Wokingham Town manager Matt Eggleston is enjoying his latest spell in the dugout and recently hit 300 games for the first team.
He started the 2025/26 season as joint manager with Darren Purbrick but has recently been in sole charge of the Sumas.
The Sumas attracted some big names in the summer and have pushed on this season. Here Matt talks to William Kruczek about his journey with the Lowther Road side and fitting it all in around family and work commitments.
You hit the milestone of managing 300 games at Wokingham Town in November. Whats the journey been like?
It’s been good. I came in how many years ago now, 13-14 years ago with Dan Bateman, And the remit was to try and get the club to step 5. We finished up winning some cups and finishing runners up in the league that season, and we didn’t take promotion because the club wasn’t ready for us to go to step five. Our ground wasn’t adequate for Step 5 at that particular time so we didn’t go up. And then the following year, we went for it and we won the league quite comfortably in the end. We also won two or three cups in that season as well. So we went up to step five, but because we were ground-sharing with Henley, every game felt like an away game. We started losing players, we got hit with some really bad injuries. I think we lost three centre halves in the first four games and the previous seasons we prided ourselves on being defensively strong, so unfortunately our first adventure in Step 5 didn’t go very well.
We got relegated, Dan and I stepped down, not because of the relegation, but purely because of work and family lives. I had a ton of very young children at the time, so I stepped down and so did Dan. And then Dan came back in, I can’t remember what it was, two years later or a year later, and he asked me to come back in with him. At the time it wasn’t right for me, but I think by October of that season I was back in the dugout with Dan and that was it.
We got the team to the top of the league in step 6 and that’s when COVID hit if my dates are right here. And we got promotion based on points per game. Then I had some personal challenges that I had to deal with. I spoke to Dan and said I just can’t commit to Step 5 at that time, so Dan and I stepped away. That’s when Elliot Whitehouse came in. Results didn’t go his way for his first season, I think he avoided relegation second season.
Matt Cronin followed him and I was asked by the club if I’d run the under 18s Allied Counties team, which I did. The beauty of that is that we could kind of choose when we played. You played Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday, so we managed to move the diary around to help me with my work and family commitments. I had a very successful side. In fact, I think eight of the players that played for me and the Allied team went on to play first team that season.
Then, what was it, wwo and a half years ago, the club spoke to me and Darren Purbrick. The club were, I think, six points adrift with 10 games to go. And the remit was to keep the club up, and we went on a massive run in those 10 games. We won six, drew two, lost two, and we finished 15th.
Last season we finished 14th with a few more points in the season before, which is good. And then onto this season, obviously Darren and I did it again, although Darren and I parted ways in October, and I’m the sole manager now.
I’ve got a great management team behind me. We’ve got a target in our heads where we want to finish this season. I think it’s realistic. I mean, the league’s very tight, right from the top to the bottom, really. Anybody can beat anybody on their day, so it’s going to be interesting last set games for us.
You touched upon working alongside Dan and Darren, but how has it been since taking over the managerial role solo?
Yeah, it’s good. Dan’s one of my best mates. I’ve known Dan for a long time and I’ve known the family for a long time. We know each other inside out, and I think there’s only one occasion that we didn’t agree on something in the whole of the time we worked together. And Darren is a friend.
We had different views, which is like any relationship, as I said to Darren when we parted ways, you know, sometimes relationships don’t always last. And I just felt at the time we’d come to a situation where I wanted to go one way, and I think Darren had a different view, so I felt it was best that one of us stepped down.
Darren ended up stepping down and I took it on. So it’s been good. Dan’s at most games anyway, so I still have Dan as a sounding board, you know, I speak to Dan probably every other day, as mates as well. We talk about the games and we talk about his thoughts.
Obviously when you come in the club hours after a game, the committee are there. I’ve got some good friends on the committee who give me their views. Sometimes I agree with them, sometimes I don’t. I also have a fantastic management team behind me.
So yeah, I’m surrounded by good people and I’m thankful for everything they do for me. There’s still a lot to do, I mean, for example, Mark, he does our kit. He’s away this week, so I’m sorting out the kit for the game today, but I’m enjoying it on my own. I don’t feel like I’m on my own, you know, with the management team I have behind me I don’t feel on my own at all. They’re supportive and they give me their honest views. I said to them when they all started coming back in that I don’t want yes men. I want someone to challenge me.
If you don’t agree with something I’m saying or suggest, tell me why. Give me the valid reasons and I’ll listen to it, and if I think it’s right, then we’ll go with it, like we did on Saturday (against British Airways) to be honest. I put up what I thought would be the best 11 for that game. The management team said to me, actually, we think this, and I went with them. Unfortunately, we lost the game, but we didn’t lose the game because of the management team’s selection, we just didn’t play well enough in the game. But yeah, I’ve got good people behind me which is why I love it so much.
You have some big personalities in the squad, Sean Moore as an example. What’s it like working with those big personalities?
I’ve known Sean for a long time and I went after him in the summer. I’ve talked to him previously about playing. You know, he’s got his own family, he’s started his own business up, so he’s had a lot of change in his life. I just said to Sean if he fancied one more year round? Let’s go for it and have a laugh, and he said okay, which took a little bit of persuasion.
I also think about Harrison Bailey in there as well. But I think the main thing from the senior players, like the Harrisons and the Seans in this world, is that they respect me. I’m not a manager who hasn’t played football; I’ve played at a very good level in terms of non-league for Wokingham many years ago, so I do know football.
Football has changed a lot since I played and I sometimes have to change how I talk in the changing room in terms of, when I played, every tackle wasn’t always a yellow card or a red card. You could get away with more when I played those years ago, but now every tackle you’re looking, could it be a yellow, could it be a red? And so you have to sort of ask players to do different things in games where, you can’t say, go and clatter a player, because you guarantee that players are going to get yellow or red, right? So, football’s changed massively since I played, but I think they respect me, they listen, they’ll challenge me in the changing rooms after I’ve spoken after a game, players will come and talk to me in the bar and say, can I ask why we did this and didn’t do that? And I’ll say, well, these are the reasons why.
Sometimes they walk away and agree with me, sometimes they probably think, no, we don’t agree with that. But it’s always different when you’re winning games and people are playing minutes, their opinions of the game are so different to people who aren’t playing many minutes, so I’d say, it’s understanding each individual person and how you treat them.
We’ve got young Aaron in the side, he’s 16. He doesn’t need to be shouted at, he needs an arm round the shoulder. I can shout all day long at Sean and Harrison if I need to, I know I can, because I know they can take it because they’re strong personalities, as you said. But it helps with my job as well, so it’s good that you have to manage different people in different ways. Everyone’s different, right? So it’s a good learning curve.
You’re highly embedded in the club, getting involved with many aspects of running the club. Just how much does Wokingham Town mean to you?
The club means the world to me. I’ve played for the club from youth to the first team. Played a lot under some very good managers, you know, ex-pro managers who I think I’ve taken a little bit from each of them to work on my how I am as a manager. But yeah the club is everything to me, I bleed orange.
I’ve done several jobs around the club, I’m here on match days, sometimes cutting the grass, marking the pitch, as well as managing team. We’re all up here helping out when we need, when the pitch is a bit doubtful because of the weather.
I just think it’s a special club, special people. We’re not as affluent as other clubs in the league. You’ve only got to look at certain leagues, I was talking to a Chairman the other day in our league and the budget they’re talking now is just ridiculous at Step 5. But it’s a challenge when you’re competing against teams who are offering money for your players, silly money to your players.
But I try and sell the club to people. We constantly get awards from the leagues and the comments from the officials about how we condone ourselves, the hospitality before and after the game, the food. So I pride myself in that as well, we’re all part of the club, we all dig in and help. But yeah the club to me is everything.
My daughter now works behind the tea bar. My younger daughter comes up and with my three boys as well, and one of them is now playing for Wokingham in the youth, so it’s a real family affair.
My other half, bless her, luckily she loves football so she’s here at most games. I think she’s missed two games this season, which is pretty applaudable really when you think about having five children. I said about surrounding myself with great people, if I go home after a win, draw or loss, I can be in a good mood or a bad mood, but going home to someone who’s so supportive is huge for me, it’s a massive thing. And having the committee and the management team on speed dial on my phone to say, that wasn’t good enough on Saturday or Tuesday. What are we going to do? How are we going to change it? What can we do with the mentality?
So to answer your question, it basically is, I love the club. I’ve had offers. I’ve had two offers, one last season and the season before to go to another club. But I can’t see myself leaving this club for a very long time.
