WITH the departures of Wes Foderingham, Andy Williams and Darren Ward last week, so went the last remaining signings made during the carefree spending sprees of Paolo Di Canio.

The former two had played a big part in the past season’s successes.

Foderingham was the ever-reliable last line of defence, excelling despite playing behind a leaky back three. He is moving on to bigger things.

Williams enjoyed the best goalscoring campaign of his career, successfully completing his comeback from a serious knee injury to score 22 goals. He will not have a problem finding new employers.

The last of the three slipped out without fanfare.

Ward had hardly been seen, or heard of, since Swindon’s 4-1 defeat to Wolves at the County Ground in March 2014. He spent the last five months of his Town career trying to keep Crawley in League One.

It was an ignominious end for the man who started the previous season as captain and, by the time of his last game, had played the previous 79 in succession.

When talking to Ward about his time at Swindon you might expect the man who has basically been on the shelf for over a year at the County Ground to harbour some bitterness.

In fact it is the complete opposite.

Swindon Advertiser:
Ward in his last Town appearance, against Wolves in a 4-1 defeat, at the County Ground in March 2014

As Ward said in these pages yesterday he is proud and grateful to have had his time at Town.

As is evident from the consecutive appearances he made prior to his exile, Ward was once a vital part of the Town side. None more so than when he was first signed by Di Canio, the period the workaholic defender cherishes most in a red shirt.

“Under Di Canio I had a great time,” Ward told the Advertiser. “It really opened my eyes to another way of management. On the communication side it was an interesting journey for five months, or not even that.

“The amount I improved as a player and I learnt (a lot) from him as a boss if I went into management (full-time) and all in all it was a great experience.

“That was possibly the best time.

“I never stop learning, but what I learned from Di Canio was there are a number of ways to get a winning team and to win games.

“To have one way to play is a little bit naïve I think. To have one way and think that’s the be all and end all to win every game is a bit naïve in today’s game.

“You have to have a number of different ways to win a game of football and that takes an incredible amount of hard work.

“On top of that you have to have a number of different ways to communicate with people. Di Canio, when he moved on to Sunderland, he faltered a bit there, which is a shame because I think he is a tremendous manager.

“It shows you have to have more, it’s having a number of different ways to win games and win over your team to keep yourself at a football club – which is a difficult thing to do.”

Swindon Advertiser:
Ward with former boss Paolo Di Canio in January 2013, little over a month later the Italian would be gone and the defender would be co-player/manager

Ironically, the high watermark of Ward’s Town career was actually in the days after the Italian’s departure, when a managerless side went top of League One.

“Tranmere away and winning that game under the circumstances to go top of the league was an incredible high – a real nice one,” he concurs.

As well as a big role on the playing side Ward of course had a spell as co-player/manager with Tommy Miller in the aftermath of Di Canio’s exit.

Having only been a permanent fixture at the club for little over a month, Ward was honoured to be given the responsibility to take charge of a side still pushing at the top of the division.

“Finding myself as caretaker manager with Tommy Miller you never would have called it,’’ he said.

“When you look at it from the positive side, that the club and the players wanted to position myself and Tommy as managers, it is an incredible thing to have on your CV.

“When you look at being put in that position, you have to think ‘I must be doing something right, I must have an incredible amount of respect here and a lot of confidence that myself, and Tommy, could do the job’.

“There were lengthy talks, at the beginning anyway, of wanting us to take it until the end of the season. I rejected that early on because I wanted to play football.

“It was a tremendous experience and one I think of highly in my career.”

Swindon Advertiser:
Ward and Tommy Miller are announced as co-player/managers on February 21, 2013

Though that season ended in play-off semi-final defeat to Brentford, Ward still reflects on it as a positive campaign.

The veteran defender was to nearly join the club who had dashed Town’s chance of promotion that season in the summer as the club went through its post-Di Canio cull.

Ultimately he turned the move down and instead signed the deal that took him up to his release last week.

Town were less successful in his second season, but Ward was again a regular. At least he was until the defeat to Wolves that proved to be his last game for Swindon.

“Leading up to it there had been a lot of players in and out of the team, in and out of position, playing around with different formations. If you look at the team sheets, myself and Wes (Foderingham), maybe Mass (Luongo), were the only players who played every week.

“I had played 79 games on the spin, that’s a lot of games.

“It was a bit of a fragile moment for the club in general. We were struggling to find wins, it was hard. At the end of the day I was always there to help the players and help the team.”

It is at this point thing begin to turn sour. Ward had signed a contract the previous summer that saw his wages cut, but with a clause they would go up again if he played a certain number of games.

Though the Wolves game was not the penultimate appearance before the rise, Town had flown it close and with Ward expected to be required during the run-in he was taken out of the team.

Though he clearly feels he had something to offer, Ward refused to criticise his employers and accepted the decision that saw him go without first-team football until his loan to Crawley.

“I have had spells out of team before, a couple of times here and there – you always do. It’s a period of football,” he explains.

“I came out of the team and if the club think that’s how it is then that’s what they’re free to do. I have to be careful with what I can say and what actually happened there.

“There were certain things that happened. Right or wrong they’re the club’s decisions. If that’s what they believe then that’s fine.

“I think everyone will know about the financial side in my contract about playing a certain amount of games.

“There is a budget, it’s there and I appreciate that. It happens in football, I wasn’t the first and I certainly won’t be the last.

“Because of an incident that happened or a negative period of time I’m not going to say it is right or wrong, it’s their decision I can’t impact that because I’m employed.

“There were no arguments and it was all taken on board in the right way.

“Should I have been taken out? Should I not? That’s another thing, but I was. The club has done well from there on so they might look at it and say it’s the right decision. Again I’m not one to say it’s right or wrong.”

Swindon Advertiser: Ward spent the last five months of his Town career on loan at Crawley Town

It was clear from the start of last pre-season that Ward was not going to be involved in any matchday squads, with boss Mark Cooper making it perfectly clear he would not be considered for selection regardless of the situation.

Until his departure in January Ward still trained and worked as hard as ever, whilst offering advice to the youngsters playing in the first team.

It might only be a coincidence, but Town’s dip in form corresponded with his departure from the scene.

Ward accepts he did not fit well into the formation employed by Swindon this past season, but does believe his experience could have been a help to the squad.

“This season has been a massive change around and they wanted to play a certain way with a back three. If I’m brutally honest do I fit into a back three? No.

“I really do feel like the young players could have benefitted from having my experience on the pitch, to have in and around the squad.

“I believe you can do well as a young team, but you do need influential people around you. I don’t know Sam Ricketts too well, I’ve played against him many times and he seems like the sort of guy who could have brought that.

“They certainly would have needed someone who can bring that experience in many different ways. Not just on the football pitch, life experiences and football experiences, what you have to deal with on and off the pitch.

“You have to have a work ethic and a focus to a very high level if you want to succeed.

“I can’t say for sure whether there was a lapse after I left. I can always pass on experience and knowledge to the players, as I have always done. I’ve always done that if not with them then if they’ve got any issues then give me a call.”

From the sidelines Ward was also able to add his own insight on where Swindon fell short last season and perhaps an area he feels he could have made a difference.

“Everyone would agree some of the football was great, but when they have conceded they have conceded quite heavily.

“To be a winning team, a league winning team, you can’t do that. You have to find ways to stop that from happening.”