In common with most of the Olympic side, Matthews was from the local working-class; at the time he played for the club, he was a picture framer.
[2] Matthews properly broke into the team in the 1881–82 season, making his FA Cup debut in the club's first round defeat at Darwen that year.
[3] He finished the season by picking up his first medal for Olympic, as a right-winger in the side which beat Blackburn Rovers 5–2 in the East Lancashire Charity Cup final in August,[4] the tie delayed after Accrington withdrew from the semi-final in a huff after Olympic successfully protested the Owd Reds' fielding of an ineligible player.
[7] The season ended in a disappointment as a weakened Olympic side lost to Rovers in the 1883 Lancashire Charity Cup final.
[11] Perhaps because of this, he was no longer a first choice for Olympic, and had made his last Cup appearance in the demolition of at Oswaldtwistle Rovers in the first round of the 1884–85 competition.