Darren Ward (soccer player, 1974)

Darren Ward
Personnel
birthday	May 11, 1974
place of birth	Worksop ,  England
size	180 cm
position	goalkeeper
Men's
Years	station	Games (goals) 1
1992-1995	Mansfield Town	81 (0)
1995-2001	Notts County	252 (0)
2001-2004	Nottingham Forest	123 (0)
2004-2006	Norwich City	1 (0)
2006-2009	Sunderland AFC	33 (0)
2009	→  Wolverhampton Wanderers  (loan)	0 (0)
National team
Years	selection	Games (goals)
	Wales U-21	2 (0)
1999	Wales B	1 (0)
2000-2004	Wales	5 (0)
1 Only league games are given.

Darren Ward (born May 11, 1974 in Worksop , England ) is a former Welsh football player . The goalkeeper was under contract with the English club AFC Sunderland until 2009 .

Club career

Ward began his professional career at Mansfield Town and moved to Notts County for £ 150,000 in 1995 , where he made 252 league appearances over the following six seasons. In 1997 he rose with the club from the Football League Second Division (3rd division) to the third division (4th division), but returned to the third division after just one season. In 2001 Ward moved to city rivals Nottingham Forest on a free transfer in the First Division (2nd division) and spent almost three years there as a goalkeeper. After an injury in February 2004, Paul Gerrard was initially loaned out as a replacement and signed for the 2004/05 season.

Ward then left the club and was signed for £ 250,000 by Premier League club Norwich City , but never got past Robert Green and Paul Gallacher . In two years he only came on as a substitute twice, making his first division debut on November 13, 2004, when he was substituted on for Green after 63 minutes in the 4-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic and had to accept two goals .

After his contract expired in 2006 and was not renewed by Norwich, he completed trial training at Barnsley , Sheffield United and Leeds United , but could not recommend himself for a contract with all three clubs. Ultimately, he signed a one-year contract with the second division Sunderland . There he was able to replace Ben Alnwick as goalkeeper of the Black Cats in October 2006 and returned at the end of the season as champions in the Premier League. For the 2007/08 season Sunderland signed the Scottish goalkeeper Craig Gordon for nine million pounds which Ward moved to the bench. After a series of defeats, manager Roy Keane Ward sat in three league games in December 2007, but then preferred Gordon to the Welsh keeper again. In March 2009 Ward joined the second division Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan to the end of the 2008/09 season . There he was not used due to injury and returned to Sunderland. In the summer of 2009, the 35-year-old Darren Ward ended his playing career.

National team

After playing for Wales B in February 1999 against Northern Ireland B (final score 1-0), the goalkeeper made his debut in 2000 in the Welsh national dress against Portugal. Overall, he was used in five friendly matches between 2000 and 2005. He was last called up in February 2007 for the European Championship qualifiers against Ireland and San Marino, but had to cancel due to an injury.

Web links

• Darren Ward in the soccerbase.com database
• Short biography on ex-canaries.co.uk

Individual evidence

1. ^ Ged Scott: Williams' touch of first-time class; Wales B 1 Northern Ireland B 0. (No longer available online.) Birmingham Post , February 10, 1999, archived from the original on February 22, 2016 ; Retrieved April 21, 2012 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.