John Patrick Ward (born 7 April 1951) is an English former footballer and manager. He is currently manager of Colchester United after being promoted from assistant manager on 31 May 2010.
[edit] Career
[edit] Playing days
As a player, Ward spent the bulk of his career as a forward at Lincoln City where he scored more than 100 goals between 1970 and 1979. He also had spells at Watford, Grimsby and Workington.
[edit] Managerial career
Following his retirement from playing, Ward was assistant manager to Graham Taylor at Watford from 1982 and then followed Taylor to Aston Villa in 1987. After Taylor became England manager in 1990, Ward remained at Villa for a further year and a half under Jozef Venglos and then Ron Atkinson.
[edit] York City
In late 1991, Ward heard that York City, then a struggling fourth division club, had just sacked their manager. He happened to mention to his former boss Taylor in a phone call that he felt York would be a good club to start his own managerial career at, and Taylor in turn contacted the York City board (who had been considering appointing Billy McEwan as manager) and recommended that they hire Ward, which they did. After his appointment, Ward turned York around and in the 1992-93 season and had them challenging for automatic promotion for much of the season. He left before the season ended, and promotion via the play-offs was achieved by his successor, Alan Little.
[edit] Bristol Rovers & City
He later managed both Bristol clubs, Bristol Rovers and Bristol City, and was assistant to Adrian Heath at Burnley.
In 1998 Ward became assistant manager to Colin Lee at Wolverhampton Wanderers. After Lee's departure, he had a brief spell as caretaker manager before reverting to assistant under Dave Jones. He helped the club win promotion to the Premier League in 2003 but left the club at the end of the season.
[edit] Cheltenham Town
Ward was appointed Cheltenham Town manager in November 2003 and in 2006 guided the club to promotion into League One.
[edit] Carlisle United
After keeping the Robins in League One the following season, he moved to Carlisle United in October 2007.[1] Ward guided the club to a play-off position in his first season in charge, despite this however, a poor start to the 2008–09 campaign saw him under heavy pressure to resign.[2] He was later given the backing of the Carlisle board.[3] However, he eventually parted company with the club by mutual consent on 3 November.[4]
Ward applied for the vacant Swindon Town managerial role in November after Maurice Malpas left the club by mutual consent.[5] He held preliminary talks with Port Vale over their managerial vacancy in May 2009,[6] and was the favourite for the job,[7] however lost out to Micky Adams. Ward was then appointed as Stockport County's assistant manager after the appointment of Gary Ablett as Stockport boss.
[edit] Colchester United
After Colchester United appointed Aidy Boothroyd as manager he became his assistant manager. But on 20 May 2010, Aidy Boothroyd resigned as manager to join Coventry City and 11 days later, Ward was promoted to manager.[8]
Ward made 6 signings in his first transfer window Brian Wilson, Andrew Bond, Ben Coker, Lloyd James, Carl Pentney and Dave Mooney (a player he had previously attempted to sign while in charge of Carlisle United) on a 6-month loan. Ward also re-signed Sam Corcoran after he was released by Aidy Boothroyd.
John Ward's first ten league games as Colchester United manager were successful, with the U's being undefeated (having drawn 7). John Ward's first Colchester league defeat was at home to Huddersfield, losing 3-0. Later that season, Colchester won 4 out of 5 games in the league, with their latest win being 3-2 over Hartlepool. After this result, Colchester were 3rd in the division after 17 games and 2 points of the promotion places, being considered as potential promotion and play-off contenders. After this match, John Wards Colchester then struggled to rediscover their potential promotion form, only winning 7 of their next 29 league matches, losing 13 of them (which also includes losing 4-2 away to Leyton Orient). In late March 2011, John Ward got his best win as Colchester manager to date with the U's beating Exeter 5-1 at home. Colchester did suffer in their away matches. In April, Colchester went on to lose 4-1 at Carlisle and 4-2 to Yeovil. Colchester finished the league season with a 2-1 home win over relegated Bristol Rovers. Colchester finished 10th in the 2010/2011 league season.
During the 2011-2012 pre-season, John Ward made a few new additions as well as releasing some fringe players. Michael Rose, Tom Eastman and the return of club legend Karl Duguid were among the new arrivals. In August, he also dipped into the loan market to sign Reading winger Michail Antonio who enjoyed a successful 3 month loan spell with the Essex club. In February 2012, Ward captured former Queens Park Rangers midfielder Martin Rowlands on a free transfer and also completed a one month emergency loan deal for West Ham United forward Freddie Sears.
[edit] Managerial statistics
- As of 28 February 2012.[9]
[edit] Honours
[edit] As a Manager
[edit] Promotions
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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(c) caretaker (d) director of coaching (s) secretary-manager
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| Persondata |
| Name |
Ward, John Patrick |
| Alternative names |
Ward, John |
| Short description |
Football (soccer) player, coach & manager |
| Date of birth |
7 April 1951 |
| Place of birth |
Lincoln, Lincolnshire, England |
| Date of death |
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| Place of death |
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