 Born: 7th
April 1951 in Lincoln.Lincoln
City Career: 263 appearances and 99 goals,
between 1969-1979 and 1982.
Position:
Centre-forward.
Clubs:
Lincoln City, Workington, Watford and Grimsby
Town.
John
Ward is one of the all time great Lincoln City
players. However his Lincoln City career was
nearly over before it had hardly begun, as he was
loaned to Workington between September to
November 1973.
Fortunately,
before any deal was struck with Workington, the
then manager David Herd departed and Graham
Taylor took over. Taylor recognised Ward's talent
and kept him at Sincil Bank, where Ward was to
play a vital role in the success that Lincoln
City enjoyed under Taylor. This included the
1975/76 season when Lincoln were crowned Division
4 Champions with a record points tally; Ward
contributed 29 league and cup goals that season.
He
remained at Lincoln after Taylor departed to join
Watford but suffered an injury very early into
the 1977/78 season, which kept him out of action
for the rest of that season.
Most
of the Championship team had left upon his return
to fitness and personnel had changed rapidly
first, under manager George Kerr and then under
new manager Willie Bell. Ward now found himself
playing with a team widely described as the
"worst team Lincoln City has ever had",
so he decided to move on. He was quickly reunited
with Taylor plus several other ex-Imps including
Sam Ellis at Watford. The move earnt Lincoln
£15,000 but it was the end of an era, although
he did return briefly during the final part of
the 1981/82 season. Then manager Colin Murphy
signed him as cover from Grimsby Town but he made
only one further appearance, which was against
Swindon.
In
May 1982, Ward retired from playing and was
appointed Watford's coach under Taylor. Both men
are great friends and Ward later followed Taylor
to Aston Villa as coach and even become a
part-time England coach when Taylor was the
England manager.
The
partnership broke up in November 1991 when Ward
was appointed York City's manager in his first
sole managerial position. It was not long before
York gained promotion from Division Four. Further
management roles at Bristol Rovers and Bristol
City saw him achieve promotion at both.
Ward's
departure from Bristol City coincided with the
November 1998 sacking of Imps' boss Shane Westley
and many Imps' fans felt that he should have been
offered the Lincoln City manager's job. A Lincoln
born player, popular with supporters and a highly
successfully manager, Ward was and still is ideal
for the position should it ever become available
in the future.
The
future occurred in May 2006 when Keith Alexander
quit as Lincoln City's manager. Despite intense
pressure from Lincoln City's supporters for the
club to appoint Ward as Alexander's replacement,
it did not happen. One reason was that Ward's
current club Cheltenham Town had just won
promotion to League One - a division higher than
Lincoln City's status.
Ward
would go on to save Cheltenham from relegation to
League Two. However, in September 2007, he left
Cheltenham to become the manager of Carlisle
United, guiding them into the League One
Play-offs. Unfortunately, Carlisle missed out on
promotion; worse still, they began the 2008/09
season badly leading to Ward leaving the Cumbrian
club by mutual consent on 3rd November 2008.
After
missing out on several managerial posts, Ward
returned to football in July 2009 when he was
appointed as assistant-manager at Stockport
County. However, he stayed a matter of weeks
before accepting the same role at Colchester
United in September 2009.
Please click the
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United, Colchester United, Grimsby
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