Matthew Stephen Heywood (born 26 August 1979) is an English former professional footballer who played as a defender from 1997 until 2011.
He was nurtured into first-team action at Turf Moor under the stewardship of Adrian Heath, and finally made his full professional debut in a league tie at home against York City.
[2] He came on at half time to replace veteran defender Steve Blatherwick in the game that was eventually lost 1–0.
Heywood was originally one of the first choice defenders at Ashton Gate but fell out of contention in the first team,[6] due to some injury problems he sustained.
Brentford struggled under new manager Leroy Rosenior and he was eventually dismissed before being replaced by Scott Fitzgerald, and then later Barry Quinn.
Heywood would only make 18 appearances for Grimsby in his first season and spent a good chunk of that sat on the substitutes bench.
[10] During the 2009–10 season, Heywood continued to struggle in the sense of finding any way into the first-team, and failed to even make the bench on a regular basis, even under the club's new manager Neil Woods.