Who is Gavin Ward? The lowdown on QPR’s new goalkeeping coach
Gavin Ward may be a name that rang a bell with QPR fans, even before his appointment as the club’s goalkeeper coach.
His referee namesake – who has been the fourth official at Loftus Road several times and will take charge of Fulham’s FA Cup game at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday – might have sprang to mind.
But Ward the player enjoyed a nomadic 26-year career, pitching up at 18 different clubs having come through the youth ranks at Aston Villa.
• Born: 30 June 1970 (age 45), in Sutton Coldfield
• Playing career: Aston Villa, Shrewsbury, West Brom, Cardiff, Leicester, Bradford, Bolton, Burnley (loan), Stoke, Walsall, Coventry, Barnsley (loan), Preston, Tranmere, Chester, Wrexham, Hednesford Town, Gainsborough Trinity, Shrewsbury.
• Playing honours: Division Three title-winner (Cardiff, 1992-93), Division One play-off winner (Leicester, 1993-94), Division One title-winner (Bolton, 1996-97), Football League Trophy winner (Stoke City, 1999-2000)
• Coaching career: Chester, Gainsborough Trinity (asst. manager), Shrewsbury, Nottingham Forest, Burton Albion.
• Goalkeepers coached include: John Danby (Chester), Chris Weale, Joe Anyon (Shrewsbury), Karl Darlow, Dorus De Vries (Nottingham Forest), Jon McLoughlin, Remi Matthews (Burton).
He didn’t make a first-team appearance at either Villa or his next club, Shrewsbury, but did play his first professional game for West Brom in the League Cup as a 19-year-old in 1989.
Ward made his name in the lower divisions with Cardiff in the early 1990s, helped Leicester and Bolton to win promotion to the Premier League in the middle of the decade and won the Football League Trophy at Wembley with Stoke in 2000.
His career wound down after spells with Tranmere and Wrexham eight years ago but he did register as a keeper while coaching at Gainsborough Trinity and Shrewsbury.
• Rangers connection: Played a couple of times against QPR, including in a 1-0 defeat at Loftus Road while playing for Stoke in August 2001. Andy Thomson scored the only goal.
• Hooray, Henry: On the bench for Stoke that day was an 18-year-old Karl Henry, who was breaking through into professional football during Ward’s time at the club. Rangers’ new coach also knows Jamie Mackie from his time on the staff at Nottingham Forest.
• Little mix: Brian Little signed Ward for Leicester, Stoke and Wrexham, and later appointed him as his assistant at non-League Gainsborough Trinity.
• Full circle: He left Gainsborough to become goalkeeper coach at Shrewsbury, under Graham Turner – who was manager of Villa in the 1980s when Ward was a youth team keeper there.
In June 2013, Ward left the Shrews to join Nottingham Forest, under Billy Davies, and then linked up with Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink at Burton.
That link with the Dutchman has now brought him to Loftus Road, where he will be charged with getting the best out of Rob Green, Alex Smithies and Joe Lumley.
