John Ward

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 Town and Workington.

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.

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.

Bristol Rovers and 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.

Cheltenham Town

Ward was appointed Cheltenham Town…

Manager

Bristol City

Football League Second Division runner-up: 1997–98 Cheltenham Town

Football League Two play-offs: 2006 Individual

Football League Two Manager of the Month: November 2005 Football League One Manager of the Month: February 2008, March 2008