Player Profile

Perhaps memorable to Town fans as Exeter’s extremely shaky keeper during the ‘wind tunnel’ game of February 2021, Ward was considered unlikely to be anything more than backup to Jojo Wollacott when he signed after a trial in July of 2022, and indeed he spent the first three months of the season on the bench for league games, appearing only in the League Cup defeat to Cambridge and a Papa John’s game against Arsenal U21.

Wollacott’s surprise call-up to the Ghanaian national team squad gave Ward his opportunity in the league and he performed very creditably against former club Forest Green on his league debut in October, keeping his place for the Rochdale game that followed. His appearances for much of the rest of the season came when Wollacott was away, including during January’s Africa Cup of Nations when he played four consecutive games. He signed a new contract in December 2021 to remain at the club beyond the end of his first season.

Come the back-end of that season, Ward became Ben Garner’s first choice even with Wollacott in the country, starting Town’s final four games of the season and going into the playoff campaign as the man in possession of the gloves. His performances in goal were largely solid, although his distribution was occasionally targeted by opposition sides as he seemed less comfortable than Wollacott in playing possession across the back-line.


Off the back of Town’s playoff disappointment, and with Wollacott leaving the club along with manager Garner to join Charlton, Ward would have hoped to retain the number one position for the 2022/23 season. Unfortunately for him, loan signing Sol Brynn impressed in preseason and Ward lost out, playing only the League Cup game before being sold to Sutton in search of first team football.

By February, Ward was back training with Swindon, having departed Sutton after making only 9 appearances before being supplanted by Jack Rose. For administrative reasons that weren’t entirely clear, Ward was never allowed to be formally re-signed, although the continued fitness of Sol Brynn meant that Town never really had to force the issue.

Ward was formally re-signed in summer of 2023, although through the unusual route of contracting him as Youth Development Phase Lead Coach in the academy (at the age of 26) but also registering him as a player. Ward played in Town’s three Bristol Street Motors Trophy games, with Murphy Mahoney the number one in the League, and looked like he might get a run in the side when Mahoney was injured away at Tranmere in December. He played the next four league games before the signing of Jack Bycroft, who took over as number one, and shortly afterwards Ward would leave Swindon once more in a surprise move to join Charlton as a backup goalkeeper.

Playing Record

Senior

Career details

Club	Details
Reading Reading	(youth) 2014 ; transferred out (rptd June 21st, 2019)
Portsmouth Portsmouth	(loan)
Whitehawk Whitehawk	rptd October 10th, 2014 (loan); expired (rptd October 24th, 2014)
Sutton United Sutton United	rptd March 24th, 2016 (loan); expired (rptd May 30th, 2016)
Fylkir Fylkir	rptd May 5th, 2016 (loan); expired (rptd June 26th, 2016)
Margate Margate	rptd August 3rd, 2016 (loan); contract terminated (rptd November 21st, 2016)
Margate Margate	rptd February 18th, 2017 (loan); expired (rptd March 17th, 2017)
Hungerford Town Hungerford Town	rptd March 18th, 2017 (loan); expired (rptd May 1st, 2017)
Hungerford Town Hungerford Town	rptd August 1st, 2017 (loan); expired (rptd November 10th, 2017)
Aldershot Town Aldershot	rptd November 10th, 2017 (loan); expired (2017/8)
Northampton Town Northampton Town	July 27th, 2018 (loan); recalled from loan (January 14th, 2019)
Forest Green Rovers Forest Green	January 14th, 2019 (loan); expired (2018/9)
Exeter City Exeter City	July 1st, 2019 (announced June 21st, 2019) (transferred in, undisclosed fee); released (rptd May 12th, 2021)
Portsmouth Portsmouth	January 28th, 2021 (loan); expired (2020/1)
Swindon Town Swindon	rptd July 27th, 2021 (unattached); transferred out (September 1st, 2022)
Sutton United Sutton United	September 1st, 2022 (transferred in, undisclosed fee); released (January 31st, 2023)
Swindon Town Swindon	August 22nd, 2023 (unattached); released (January 18th, 2024)
Charlton Athletic Charlton Athletic	January 22nd, 2024 (unattached); released (rptd May 3rd, 2024)
AFC Wimbledon Wimbledon	July 11th, 2024 (unattached)