Ward finding perfect match in vital roles for club and country
STEPHEN Ward smiles when he’s asked to compare Martin O’Neill and Sean Dyche. There appears to be a lot of parallels between his international and club manager, two passionate and intense men who get the best out of players. ‘There are a lot of similar qualities that both of them have and that is why everyone enjoys coming in here,’ the full-back explains. ‘The team spirit is great and if we can keep that bond together and keep going the way we are going, we will have a good chance of qualifying.’
O’Neill and Dyche have both shown full confidence in the 31-year-old Dubliner, and he has repaid that faith with some solid performances. Like many of his Ireland team-mates though, Thursday night was not one of his better evenings. Ward was poor and guilty of some sloppy passing, giving away possession a number of times.
The easy excuse for Ireland’s laboured performance is that it was a hangover from the summer exploits. The slow pace of Thursday against Georgia was in stark contrast to the way Italy and France were unsettled by Ireland’s intensity and high-pressing but Ward is not buying that.
‘It’s a different type of game to what we had at the Euros,’ Ward points out. ‘Georgia came here and when we had the ball, they sat off. Sometimes, that can make it difficult. In France, when we are playing the so-called bigger nations, it is up to them to come out at us and when we break, it is at a much higher intensity. It is harder to do when we have two banks of four or five.
‘We need to do more to break teams down. We need to improve, we need to put them under a lot more pressure than we did. We know that we have to improve but the most important thing is that we know we can improve.’
It’s not just with the men in charge that there are similarities between Burnley and Ireland. Even though the Premier League is only seven games old, the Clarets have already shown an ability to unnerve more vaunted opponents, taking the notable scalp of Liverpool in the second match.
Ward’s steady performances at full-back for Dyche’s side have been noticeable and he has been keeping the ball well for his club. ‘There are similarities, to the way we come up against teams here, with Burnley. When they sit back a lot and give you a lot of ball, you have to try balls in behind, in some tight spaces and they don’t always come off.
‘There are times when you stretch teams and try to get in behind. Sometimes, they will work and sometimes, they won’t. But you have to realise that these risks have to be taken in the final third.’
Even after beating Liverpool 2-0, Burnley remained one of the firm favourites for relegation but it doesn’t bother Ward. ‘Listen we expect it to be that way all season. From the moment we got promoted, we knew that we would be odds-on favourites to go down and I think it will be that way for most of the season.
We have to use strengths that we have to impose our game on teams
‘But I think the most important thing is belief in ourselves and that the manager has belief in us. The manager is very detailed in everything he does, both on and off the field, everyone knows their job. He has very high confidence in the lads, he probably believes in us more than we believe in ourselves at times.
‘He knows that we are not going to go places and out-pass teams and have six hundred passes in every game and score the perfect goal. We have to use what we have and use our strengths to impose ourselves on teams and we have done that so far.’
He could have been describing Ireland, rather than Burnley. At club and international level, the job isn’t much different for Stephen Ward. Doesn’t seem to be much difference in the two men giving him his job, either.