Darren Philip Ward (born 13 September 1978) is an English

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who last played for Hemel Hempstead Town. Ward has played for all three major

South London South London is the southern part of London, England, south of the River Thames. The region consists of the Districts of England, boroughs, in whole or in part, of London Borough of Bexley, Bexley, London Borough of Bromley, Bromley, London Borou ...

teams,

Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic Football Club is an English professional football club based in Charlton, south-east London, which compete in . Their home ground is The Valley, where the club have played since 1919. They have also played at The Mount in C ...

, Crystal Palace and Millwall. He also played for and was briefly joint caretaker manager at Swindon Town.

Playing career

Born in

Kenton Kenton may refer to: Places Canada *Kenton, Manitoba South Africa *Kenton-on-Sea United Kingdom *Kenton, Devon *Kenton, London **Kenton station, Kenton Road, Kenton, London *Kenton, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear *Kenton, Suffolk **Kenton ra ...

, a district of Harrow, Ward started his career at

Watford Watford () is a town and borough in Hertfordshire, England, 15 miles northwest of Central London, on the River Colne. Initially a small market town, the Grand Junction Canal encouraged the construction of paper-making mills, print works, a ...

, making his debut on 20 April 1996 against arch-rivals

Luton Luton () is a town and unitary authority with borough status, in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 census, the Luton built-up area subdivision had a population of 211,228 and its built-up area, including the adjacent towns of Dunstable an ...

. But opportunities were scant for Ward in the next few seasons – he made eight appearances in 1996–97 and, after suffering a badly broken leg, only one appearance in each of the following two seasons. Ward was loaned out to Q.P.R., in the 1999–2000 season, playing fifteen games, and was generally impressive. On his return to Watford he became one of their first-team centre-halves, playing against teams like

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

in the club's final two months in the

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

and scoring in a 1–1 draw with

Middlesbrough Middlesbrough ( ) is a town on the southern bank of the River Tees in North Yorkshire, England. It is near the North York Moors national park. It is the namesake and main town of its local borough council area. Until the early 1800s, the a ...

. On their return to Division 1, Ward continued to be a first team regular, making 40 appearances in 2000–01.

Gianluca Vialli Gianluca Vialli (; born 9 July 1964) is an Italian former football manager and player who played as a striker. Since retiring, he has gone into management, punditry and worked previously as a commentator for Sky Sport Italia. He is currently ...

's arrival at Vicarage Road in the summer of 2001 saw a considerable re-modelling of the side, and Ward was one of the casualties. He moved to Millwall in October 2001 for £500,000 where he became a regular first team player, and was nicknamed 'The Peckham Beckham', due to the fact that his haircut is similar to that of former England captain

David Beckham David Robert Joseph Beckham (; born 2 May 1975) is an English former professional footballer, the current president and co-owner of Inter Miami CF and co-owner of Salford City. Known for his range of passing, crossing ability and bending fr ...

. At

The New Den The Den (previously The New Den) is a football stadium in New Cross, south-east London, and the home of Millwall Football Club. The Den is adjacent to the South London railway originating at , and a quarter of a mile from the Old Den, which i ...

, Ward and

Matthew Lawrence Matthew William Lawrence (born February 11, 1980) is an American actor and singer, known for his roles in ''Mrs. Doubtfire'' and ''Boy Meets World''. Lawrence also starred in the series '' Brotherly Love'' with his real-life brothers Joey and An ...

stood out at the central defensive position, as the Lions played in the

2004 FA Cup Final The 2004 FA Cup Final was the 123rd FA Cup Final and the fourth to be played at the Millennium Stadium, the Welsh national stadium in Cardiff, due to the ongoing reconstruction of the usual venue, London's Wembley Stadium. The match took place o ...

, against Manchester United. Ward played the full 90 minutes, as Millwall were beaten 3–0. In May 2005 he moved across south-London to Crystal Palace for £1.1m, signing a three-year deal. Ward initially did well and his goalscoring form made him very popular, but by the end of his first season this good form disappeared, and by May 2007 he was out of the side, with Mark Hudson and

Leon Cort Leon Terence Anthony Cort (born 11 September 1979) is a former footballer who played as a defender. He is the younger brother of Carl Cort and the older half-brother of Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Cort began his career as at non-league side Dulwich ...

preferred instead. In July 2007, Ward joined

Wolves The wolf (''Canis lupus''; plural, : wolves), also known as the gray wolf or grey wolf, is a large Canis, canine native to Eurasia and North America. More than thirty subspecies of Canis lupus, subspecies of ''Canis lupus'' have been reco ...

on a three-year contract for an undisclosed fee however it was announced in May 2008 that he would be one of many casualties leaving the club, after spending less than a year there. However, after showing a positive attitude, Ward was taken off the transfer list and told to fight for his place. He went on a two-month loan to

in September 2008, the club where he began his career, but this was halted after nine appearances when he suffered a cheekbone fracture. He scored once during his second spell at Watford, in a 3–0 win over QPR. He joined

on loan for the remainder of the 2008–09 season on 30 January 2009, but was unable to prevent the team being relegated to League One. He returned to his parent club in the summer, who loaned him out again in September 2009, this time to his former team Millwall on a three-month loan, made permanent on 1 January 2010. He signed a three-year contract extension with Millwall in June 2010.

Swindon Town

Ward signed permanently for Swindon Town on 4 January 2013, after a successful loan spell. He signed a four-month loan deal at the beginning of the 2012–13 season until January which resulted in signing the 18-month deal. On 20 February, following the departure of Paolo Di Canio, Swindon announced that along with Tommy Miller, Ward would be taking temporary charge of the squad for the game against Preston on 23 February.

Crawley Town (loan)

On 8 January 2015, it was announced that Ward would be joining Crawley Town on loan from Swindon Town until the end of the 2014–15 season. Ward had made 499 career appearances, and has said that he wants to make it to the 600 mark. He scored his first goal for Crawley in a 2–0 win over Notts County on 18 April 2015.

Yeovil Town

On 8 November 2015, Ward signed for

Yeovil Town Yeovil Town may refer to: * Yeovil Town F.C., an English football team based in Yeovil, Somerset * Yeovil Town L.F.C. Bridgwater United Women's Football Club are an English women's association football club based in Bridgwater, Somerset who wer ...

on a short-term contract until January 2016. After being made captain of Yeovil following the appointment of

Darren Way Darren Way (born 21 November 1979) is an English professional football manager and former player who is currently the assistant manager at Fleetwood Town. A hard tackling centre-midfielder as a player, Way started his career at Norwich City as ...

as manager, Ward signed an extension to his contract until June 2017. At the end of the 2016–17 season, Ward was released by Yeovil along with five other players.

Hemel Hempstead Town

In February 2018, Ward signed for

National League South The National League South, formerly Conference South, is one of the second divisions of the National League in England, immediately below the top division National League. Along with National League North, it is in the second level of the N ...

side Hemel Hempstead Town.

Personal life

Darren is the brother of ex-Luton Town goalkeeper Scott Ward and Notts County's ex- West Ham United defender

Elliott Ward Elliott Leslie Ward (born 19 January 1985) is a retired English professional footballer who played as a defender. He played in the Premier League for West Ham United and Norwich City. Playing career West Ham United Ward was born in Harrow, ...

. He turned down the opportunity of joining West Ham and the Premiership before opting for Palace, claiming he didn't want to keep his brother out of the team. As of February 2011, he runs a cattery in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

Career statistics

Honours

Club

Millwall *

FA Cup The Football Association Challenge Cup, more commonly known as the FA Cup, is an annual knockout football competition in men's domestic English football. First played during the 1871–72 season, it is the oldest national football competi ...

runner-up: 2003–04 * Play off Winner 2010-11 * Player of the year 2003-04, 2004-05

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ward, Darren 1978 births People from Kenton, London Footballers from the London Borough of Harrow Footballers from the London Borough of Brent Living people English footballers Men's association football central defenders Premier League players English Football League players National League (English football) players Millwall F.C. players Queens Park Rangers F.C. players Watford F.C. players Crystal Palace F.C. players Charlton Athletic F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. players Crawley Town F.C. players Yeovil Town F.C. players Hemel Hempstead Town F.C. players Swindon Town F.C. managers English football managers FA Cup final players