Joel Ward's final Palace programme feature interview

This interview was conducted in November 2024 and was initially published in the Crystal Palace v Fulham matchday programme - you can buy issues of the matchday programme by clicking HERE.

There is always a curious period an hour or so after full-time in a big Premier League game.

The global TV roadshow has rolled into town, poured over every blade of grass and rolled back out again. The enormous outside broadcast trucks evacuate the car-park, taking huge satellite dishes with them; the pitch-side cameras and lecterns are packed away, and the stands lie dormant once again.

On the pitch, those who didn’t play the full 90 minutes complete their warm-downs with the coaches. Their conversation echoes around the stadium when an hour earlier they would have had to shout to be heard from just a few yards away.

It’s a different world, and a reminder that the life of a Premier League footballer goes on once the bright lights and the competitive tension have gone away.

Waiting beside the pitch at Selhurst Park is Martin Kelly, who has been covering this particular game for Liverpool TV, but who made almost 150 appearances for Crystal Palace over a seven-year spell. Trotting over to catch up is former teammate Joel Ward.

It’s strange seeing the two familiar faces together once again, but this time in such different circumstances. Kelly wears casual clothes and sports a press pass; Ward is in full kit – boots, GPS and all. One is looking back on a career at the top level, the other is still very much in the thick of it.

“We just discussed life,” Ward says of their conversation pitchside. “It’s quite rare that you spend the amount of time that you did with the likes of Martin Kelly and Scott Dann and James McArthur and all those guys that were here for that period of time.

“You’re doing life together so to speak. You’re all fighting and battling away and you’re going on the journey together at the club, but it’s good to take stock and enjoy the moments and celebrate the moments as well. It’s nice to hang out with them.”

Is it weird seeing Kelly in his post-playing mode? “I guess so, but that’s life isn’t it? We all go on different journeys. Sometimes it’s quite refreshing to see someone who is not still at the club stepping into something completely different.”

Ward has been trying his hand at punditry himself, although the temptations of remaining in the game rather than swapping over to the dark side – the media – are palpable.

“It’s easier to analyse the game from afar,” he says, mulling it over.

“I’ve quite enjoyed what I’ve done on that side of things. I also understand things aren’t always perfect – you don’t go out there to make a mistake. You don’t go out there to do something wrong.

“It’s important for the media to help build people up and be positive as well, and not always nitpick at certain little things, because we’ve all been there. We’ve all made those mistakes along the way.

“When you’re a manager, you’re in the thick of it. It’s like being back playing; the difference is you can’t go out on the pitch and do what you want to do. It’s about leading the group and bringing out the best in the group.

“It’s about making sure that you create an environment where people want to go out there and cross that white line and go to battle for [the result]. There’s something that’s appealing about that, but it’s not always rainbows and butterflies. There’s always going to be a period of time when things are hard.”

While attackers often rely as much on individual brilliance as on their cohesion as a unit, defenders have to be in lock-step to be successful. One step out of place and an offside trap fails or a forward is left unmarked at a set-piece.

Is that where the bond with former players like Kelly comes from?

“I think it’s just personalities,” Ward suggests. “We used to car pool, but that feels like a lifetime ago now. I think I’ve been very fortunate across the time I’ve been at the club to have some incredible players, but also incredible characters – big characters.

“You had Mile [Jedinak], Damo [Damien Delaney], Punch [Jason Puncheon], and guys that really pulled through like Wilfried [Zaha]. Recently with Mikey [Michael Olise] and Marc [Guéhi], you’re looking for those big characters to come through and lead the club to the heights it deserves to go to.”

One of those characters Ward has already mentioned is James McArthur, whose programme column this season has also explained the need for leadership in the dressing room.

“It’s always a cliché, but if your back is against the rope, what do you do: hunker down or come out fighting?

“It comes down to your mentality. It’s in the struggles and the hardships that the characters come out, and sometimes you get it from people you don’t necessarily expect it from on a day-to-day basis.

“Something rises up within them and they grab the game by the scruff of the neck and carry the team, which helps to lead and encourage and bring out the best in each other. There are different ways of doing it, but your actions on the pitch, be it vocally or a moment on the ball, can change the momentum and swing a game.

“Just having the confidence and desire and belief to go and make a difference.”

Ward has certainly made a difference in his 13 years at Crystal Palace – but has he had a chance to appreciate the good moments, or is the focus always directed towards the future?

His answer to the question, posed back in November, still rings true today.

“For me, it’s always been about keeping my head down and working hard,” he says. “Celebrate the victories along the way, celebrate the moments and continue to be as consistent as possible.

“You have to celebrate the moments – it doesn’t have to be big, but you have to take stock and enjoy them. But you can’t rest on your laurels. You can’t just do well for a period of time and then sit back and hope that things will grow. It’s about how you can maintain that throughout the course of your journey at the club.”

Looking back, it’s fair to say that there have been plenty of good times in Joel Ward’s time at Crystal Palace.

Joining in the Championship and going on to become the first player to make 300 Premier League appearances for the club, he can look back on promotions and cup finals – including one, quite recently, which wrote his name even further into Palace folklore.

There have been victories against the biggest clubs in the country and at some of the toughest away grounds up and down the land, as well as Ward guiding a new generation of talented young stars into the cut and thrust of the most-watched league in world football.

It may be that those quiet moments after the weekend’s action, in the brief, fleeting lull before the build-up to the next game begins all over again, are the only time to look back on a job well done.

But even if it’s just for those. few moments, it’s an indulgence that could not be better deserved.