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Hammered – I Played Football for West Ham, Man City and Everton… Then the Police Came Calling and My Life Fell Apart
Author(s): Mark Ward (Author)
- Publisher: John Blake
- Publication Date: 1 Nov. 2010
- Language: English
- Print length: 288 pages
- ISBN-10: 1843582724
- ISBN-13: 9781843582724
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Hammered
‘I Played Football for West Ham, Man City and Everton … Then the Police Came Calling and My Life Fell Apart.’
By Mark Ward
John Blake Publishing Ltd
Copyright © 2010 Mark Ward
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-84358-272-4
Contents
Title Page,
Dedication,
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS,
FOREWORD BY HOWARD KENDALL,
INTRODUCTION,
1 BORN IN THE ATTIC,
2 JOY AND SORROW,
3 SLAVES TO THE PROS,
4 GOODISON HEARTBREAK,
5 THE KING AND I,
6 WEMBLEY WOE,
7 BAKER’S BOY LOSING DOUGH,
8 ROYLE APPROVAL,
9 HAPPY HAMMER,
10 HARD MEN,
11 LONDON LIFE,
12 LOW MACARI,
13 ANYONE FOR TENNIS?,
14 THE MIGHTY QUINN,
15 THE GREATEST FEELING,
16 TROUBLE WITH MO,
17 FIGHTING BACK,
18 SHOOTING THE POPE,
19 THREATENING BEHAVIOUR,
20 GOODBYE GOODISON,
21 WHO’S THE JOKER?,
22 FRY-UPS, FLARE-UPS AND P**S-UPS,
23 OUT OF THE BLUE,
24 THE BIG FELLA,
25 GISSA JOB,
26 FOREIGN FIELDS,
27 ANGER MANAGEMENT,
28 ARMAGEDDON,
29 UP TO MY NECK,
30 MY WORST NIGHTMARE,
31 PRISONER NM6982,
32 DEATH IN THE WALLS,
33 PHONES 4 U,
34 GOING DOWN,
35 TAKING THE P**S,
36 FINAL COUNTDOWN,
37 JORDAN’S TITS,
38 TO HELL AND BACK,
Copyright,
CHAPTER 1
BORN IN THE ATTIC
REACHING the top in football became my goal very early in life, so it was perhaps appropriate that I was born in the attic of 25, Belton Road, Huyton, Liverpool on October 10, 1962.
My sister Susan had arrived a year before me. As the eldest of seven children, we became very close as kids. Like all families in the large Ward clan, Mum and Dad kept very busy and seemed to produce a baby almost once a year. Billy turned up just nine months after me, then Tony, followed by Irene, Ann and Andrew. Mum lost a child somewhere in between, so there should really have been eight of us.
In later years I asked Dad why, as his eldest son, I was named Mark William Ward and not Billy, after him. He explained that it was deemed unlucky in our family to name the eldest boy after the father. Apparently, there had been a series of tragic deaths in previous generations of our family, so Dad chose to name his second son Billy instead.
Billy Ward senior came from a large Catholic family of 13 children, with him and Tommy the two youngest. Tommy – who has been a father-figure to me and my brothers since Dad died – tells me that my grandfather had been a stoker in the merchant navy, travelling to Russia in the first world war. My mother, Irene, was one of six kids in a family of Protestants. I’ve got so many cousins and relatives, I’ve never even met half of them.
Dad’s family originated from County Cork in the Republic of Ireland. He used to tell me about his grandmother, Mary McConnell, who came to Liverpool on the boat from Cork. She was blind and he and the other children would have to carry her to the toilet or bathroom.
Ward is a very common name in Ireland. I found out from my Uncle Paddy that they were tinkers – or ‘knackers’ as they were also sometimes called. Many a time on my visits to Ireland as a footballer I’d be asked if I was a knacker. They were not well thought of and were widely regarded as trouble-makers who loved a scrap. That doesn’t sound like me!
Ireland has always been one of my favourite destinations. I love the place and the people who make it so special. I’ve made so many friends in the Emerald Isle and I could happily live there. Dublin is Liverpool without the v
