Peter Ward

[Bob!]

when Vicente gets the ball i feel the same (somethings gonna happen ) as i did when wardy got the ball

Definitely

I was ready to shout for a pen as Vicente ran into the area
we just need Nobby to put the pens away!

 

[Vegas Seagull]

Contraversial I know but would he be as good in todays game?

There is no doubt that he touch and Football brain are top notch but when he played defenders would just junge in and try and take him out because he was quick and once he skipped over them he was away. These days defenders are a lot quicker and stay on their feet longer making it harder to get past them.

Just throwing it out there...

Better
Messi scores 68 this season, Wardy direct down the middle jinking, lightening sstyle & finishing were more similar to him than Vincente or Zamora. And he could finish, goal every second game unlike Vicente goal every 7th game in his prime at Valencia (Wardy would have buried the sitter that V missed against Reading which cost us dearly)

 

[withdeanwombat]

If he was in his prime,we couldn't afford him.The man was amazing to watch,as loads of opponents found.Forget all others.This bloke was the real deal.

Probably wouldn't get in our current team as his Spanish isn't too good! (Allegedly.)

 

[TheDuke]

PW was a bit like our Spanish geezer in as much that he wasn't that quick overall but electric over those vital first cuppla yards. Wardy seemed to simply skip and glide past defenders. Everyone knows that goose-bumps feeling when you watch a sublime player and Wardy gave you that... but so then does Vicente... and in spades!

 

[TheMajor]

Just reading thread about REMF reminder and i am sure its been said before . But how much would Wardy be worth in todays transfer market ?

About the same value as Jordan Rhodes when he goes from Huddersfield IMO.

 

[DT Withdean]

More talented and better than Holt or Lambert.

Not as good as say Defoe, Bent.

£12m in his prime.

 

[Driver 8]

More talented and better than Holt or Lambert.

Not as good as say Defoe, Bent.

£12m in his prime.

Not as good as Bent? Not sure about that. In my memory he was as good as Messi but I suppose it was in the third division so is all relative!!

 

[Noldi]

He shot he scored it must be Peter Ward oh happy days standing in the North stand singing that, he was the man, shame he never got a decent go at national level. I suppose he was up there with the best a lot better than Andy Carrol and what did Liverpool pay for him 35 million.

Noldi

 

[DT Withdean]

He shot he scored it must be Peter Ward oh happy days standing in the North stand singing that, he was the man, shame he never got a decent go at national level. I suppose he was up there with the best a lot better than Andy Carrol and what did Liverpool pay for him 35 million.

Noldi

In terms of cash spend, this is beaten by:
Torres - 7 league goals in 16 months, for £175k per week for 5 years, and a £50m fee = a £95m spend.

Ward missed on the crazy money that the likes of Torres have grabbed.

 

[T.G]

Wardy's worth his weight in goals

He shot he scored it must be Peter Ward oh happy days standing in the North stand singing that, he was the man, shame he never got a decent go at national level. I suppose he was up there with the best a lot better than Andy Carrol and what did Liverpool pay for him 35 million.

Noldi

I remember a game against Pompy when he was relatively quiet for about 30 mins. The Pompy fans started slaging him off just as he collected the ball waltzed past three defenders and planted the ball in the bottom left hand corner of the South end goal. He then promptly repeated the feat minutes later. Several pomp fans then left early....the bloke was priceless (or about£10m in today's currency).

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

when Vicente gets the ball i feel the same (somethings gonna happen ) as i did when wardy got the ball

That sentence sums it up perfectly. Vicente/Wardy whatever their credentials and relative successes may be are the only two players I've seen at the Albion who can conjure up that feeling. Whether Vicente stays or goes,I am so grateful to him and Poyet for signing him as it's reawakened memories and feelings I had as a kid watching us. That it happened in possibly the best year ever to support our club is simply amazing and a great bonus.

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

I remember a game against Pompy when he was relatively quiet for about 30 mins. The Pompy fans started slaging him off just as he collected the ball waltzed past three defenders and planted the ball in the bottom left hand corner of the South end goal. He then promptly repeated the feat minutes later. Several pomp fans then left early....the bloke was priceless (or about£10m in today's currency).

Maybe my memory is playing tricks but wasn't there a game at the Goldstone when Wardy made Chris Kamara (Pompey) look a complete muppet? It always amuses me that Kamara is now a pundit on Sky yet he was a very average player made to look even more average by Wardy.

I totally agree - Wardy used to drift in and out of games but quick as a flash he would receive the ball, shimmy past a couple of defenders, sidestep the keeper and all of a sudden he had destroyed the confidence of opposing teams. Anything could happen after that. That devastating turn to leave defenders for dead and having the ball seemingly attached to his boots made him unique. Yet he was just a slip of a lad and didn't seem to possess great physical power yet he invariably beat the keeper, he had such a deceptively 'heavy' shot.

I'm not sure the comparisons with Zamora are fair, they were different types of striker and I don't think BZ (although one of Albion's very finest) had that magic ability to effortlessly slip past 2 or 3 players so regularly. In recent years probably only Vicente has generated a similar sense of expectation when he receives the ball, although Wardy's conversion rate makes Vicente look wasteful. I don't say that lightly.

 

[Noldi]

I remember a game against Pompy when he was relatively quiet for about 30 mins. The Pompy fans started slaging him off just as he collected the ball waltzed past three defenders and planted the ball in the bottom left hand corner of the South end goal. He then promptly repeated the feat minutes later. Several pomp fans then left early....the bloke was priceless (or about£10m in today's currency).

It did seem to me that he liked scoring it that South stand goal. I wonder if some bobble hat knows how many he scored at each.end

 

[Barrel of Fun]

Why was he a flop at Forest?

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Why was he a flop at Forest?

Clough seemed to have it in for him. Tbh it was Taylor that always wanted Wardy and not Clough. Brian Clough was a petulant so and so and took it out on Wardy.

 

[Gwylan]

Why was he a flop at Forest?

Because he made 3rd division defenders look mugs, he looked confident against 2nd division defenders but didn't look too comfortable against 1st division defenders.

You have to ask why, if he was so good, did no other clubs but Forest come in for him (and even then, they didn't offer cash)?

I'm not knocking Wardy because there's never been a Brighton player who could catch your breath like Wardy could but I do think we're looking back through slightly blue-tinted glasses here.

 

[Dorset Seagull]

when Vicente gets the ball i feel the same (somethings gonna happen ) as i did when wardy got the ball

This this and 100 times this. I have only seen Vicente play once but all the old Wardy feelings of time gone by came surging back. For those saying how today's defenders would be quicker etc then just remember that Wardy would also be in better physical condition in today's game

 

[Green Cross Code Man]

Gwylan, didn't he get 18 in old division one. I don't know how that equates to todays to strikes but that's a pretty good return, especially a we were struggling at the time. That shows me he was pretty good, even in the top flight.

 

[ward is god]

I wish we had a DVD of all Wardy's goals as we have of Zamora etc. My memory has him skipping past defenders, explosive pace and deadly shot but I so wish I could see his goals again.

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Gwylan, didn't he get 18 in old division one. I don't know how that equates to todays to strikes but that's a pretty good return, especially a we were struggling at the time. That shows me he was pretty good, even in the top flight.

He got 16 league goals and 2 cup goals in 1979/80. The great unsung hero in all this is Ray Clarke, who was a great striking buddy for Ward in the top flight. Before November that season, Ward had only two league goals to his name. After Clarke arrived (getting a useful eight goals himself), Ward hit 14 goals in 30 games. After Clarke was shipped off to Newcastle, Ward in 1980/81 went back to his pre-Clarke strike-rate, of one goal in twelve Albion games. His strike-rates for Forest and then on loan with Brighton were similarly unprolific.

No striker in the top flight, not Teddy Maybank, Michael Robinson, Justin Fashanu, Garry Birtles or Ian Wallace, got the best out of Ward in quite the way that Ray Clarke did.