BOOK: MARK WARD
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| MARK WARD From Right-Wing to B-Wing... Premier League to Prison By Mark Ward Discounted price from us: £15.00 (post-free in UK) RRP £17.99 Published in hardback, 280 pages: May 30, 2009 SORRY - THIS BOOK HAS NOW SOLD OUT AND WILL NOT BE REPRINTED.  TWENTY-FIVE years ago Mark Ward was a high-profile footballer. The ebullient Scouser, who comes from a tough area of Liverpool, emerged from a large working class family to become an overnight sensation at Oldham Athletic and went on to star on the right-wing for Premier League West Ham United, Manchester City and Everton before inspiring Birmingham City to Wembley glory and promotion as player-coach.He became very popular among fans for his skill and never-say-die attitude he took into every match. In 1986, Brian Clough said England should take 'Wardy' to the World Cup, while legendary full-back Stuart Pearce named him as the most difficult opponent he ever faced for club or country. But in May 2005 Mark Ward's life was suddenly turned upside down. Police raided a house in Prescot that was rented in his name and found a substantial quantity of cocaine and what was later described at Liverpool Crown Court as "a drugs factory." He was given an eight-year prison sentence for possessing a class A drug with intent to supply - even though he was described by the judge who sentenced him as "a footsoldier" and his part in the crime was minimal by comparison to the main co-conspirators, who were arrested and charged some time after him.  Mark was initially sent to the notorious Walton Prison in Liverpool, where he spent one fearfully unforgettable night among the category A prisoners on lifers' wing and a further eight months on remand in the mayhem of B-Wing - alongside murderers, rapists, smack-heads and other major criminals.Some prisoners instantly recognised their new inmate, but now things had changed. From wearing the No.7 on his football jersey with such pride and distinction for the best part of 13 years, he became known as Prisoner Number NM6982. He ended up serving four years but that number and his horrific experiences inside will live with him forever. Ward would no doubt have received a lighter sentence - possibly half - if he had named names when interrogated by police. But Mark Ward is no grass - "it's not my style and against all the principles I was brought up with," he says. He has taken his punishment on the chin, done his time and will never reveal the identity of the men whose drugs operation effectively condemned him to jail.  Now full of remorse for his "terrible mistake", he bares his soul here and tells in compelling graphic details how he once had it all and then lost it . . . his career, his marriage and, ultimately, his dignity and his freedom.He examines how it all went so horribly wrong, what prison life was like and how a man once used to playing in front of 50,000-plus supporters in the bitter derbies of Merseyside, Manchester and London coped with being locked up and completing the longest prison sentence ever served by any former Premier League footballer. He tells of the prison gangs, the scams, the fights, the cockroaches . . . and the suicides. "I wouldn't wish the time I spent on B-Wing at Walton on my worst enemy," he says, still haunted by the memory of his first year in the prison system.  When Mark was moved to Buckley Hall open prison in Rochdale, he was thrilled to receive a visit from Howard Kendall, the former manager of Manchester City and Everton who twice signed Wardy in £1m transfer deals. Kendall has written an insightful foreword to this book.Mark relives the highs and lows of his turbulent career the heartbreak of rejection by his beloved Everton as a vulnerable 16-year-old and the sheer thrill of returning to Goodison 10 years later to score brilliant goals that defeated league champions Arsenal (on his home debut) and then Merseyside rivals Liverpool. Playing a key role in West Ham's most successful league team of 1985-86, and being offered a £50,000 bonus by chairman David Sullivan to save Birmingham from relegation. And then, with his playing days finished, he tells why he still feels aggrieved at being sacked from his first job in non-league management at hard-up Altrincham in 2001.  We learn of his many off-the-field scrapes, including the night he physically assaulted comedian Stan Boardman, and his brushes with the criminal underworld. Being beaten up and later subjected to blackmail threats during a nightmare six-month ordeal of intimidation at the hands of one of Liverpool's most notorious crime figures. Ward had been threatened with a knife but, typically, he wouldn't back down or pay up his blackmailers.He recalls how he became embroiled in the drugs trade and his friendship with a man who turned out to be one of Birmingham¹s biggest drug dealers . . . before he was shot dead in a city centre pub. And how cocaine ruined the career of a once highly promising, young team-mate. Wardy confronts all his past mistakes and is now hoping for a second chance in life, an opportunity to rebuild a coaching/management career in the game he still loves with a burning passion. |
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