Elliott Leslie Ward was born in Harrow on 19 January 1985 and came through the youth system at West Ham, making his debut for the Under-17 side before joining the first team in August 2003. In 2004, Ward went out for two loan spells, at Peterborough in July 2004 where he didn’t make an appearance and Bristol Rovers in December 2004, making 3 substitute appearances.
Ward made an impact on the West Ham first team during the second half of the 2004/ due to injuries to Christian Dailly and Malky Mackay as he partnered Anton Ferdinand. The Hammers remained unbeaten after the defeat on 12 March to reading and played in the Play Off final victory over Preston.
West Ham signed Danny Gabbidon from Cardiff to partner Ferdinand, and this resulted in chances being few and far between for Ward. He played two League Cup games, but made only one substitute Premiership appearance against Bolton on 27 August 2005.
In November 2005 Ward joined Plymouth on loan; the month-by-month loan deal lasted three months. After playing 16 games and scoring once against Wolves, Ward returned to West Ham in February 2006 playing three further games towards the end of the 2005/06 season.
[edit] Despite signing a four-year contract extension with West Ham in August 2005, Ward left the club in the summer of 2006 after 15 league appearances, joining Coventry City for £1m. He became the first million pound signing for Coventry in five years when Lee Hughes signed in 2001
His partnership with Robert Page led Ward to attract significant interest from Charlton and Fulham with but a hamstring injury in training led him to be injured for a month. Coventry’s form dipped whilst he was out and Micky Adams was sacked. The new manager Iain Dowie gave Ward the captain’s armband
He became the regular penalty taker and scored a total of 13 goals in 79 appearances in 2007/08 and 2008/09.
Having fallen down the pecking order at Coventry in 2009/10, he was due to join Southampton on an 18 month deal in January 2010 but was called off at the last minute. In February, Ward joined Doncaster on a one month emergency loan after Rovers suffered injuries to several first team defenders
He made an instant impact at Doncaster, scoring a spectacular overhead kick goal on his debut against Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsborough and played at Deepdale earlier in the month in the 1-1 draw for Doncaster.
Ward didn’t increase his tally of 14 goals from 116 appearances for Coventry as within six days of his loan ending with the Dons, Ward joined PNE on loan for the remainder of the season and has been given the number 24 shirt.