Watford legend Helen Ward tells her footballing story

When Helen Ward announced that this season was to be her last, the tributes flowed to pay respect to a career that has been as pioneering as it has been success-laden.

But what very few people know is that Watford and Wales really owe a debt of thanks to her elder brother Chris Lander!

“It was the typical story for so many female footballers. My brother played for the school and for a local team, and I used to follow him around,” explained Ward.

“I’d follow my Mum when she was playing netball, and my Dad when he was playing golf and cricket. It was a very sports-based life, everyone was playing something and I was tagging along.

“I’d play football in the back garden and I just enjoyed doing it. I was having fun, I had no idea if I was any good or not.

“My brother went to secondary school, Queen’s in Bushey, and there was an advert he saw from Watford asking for players and he brought it home.

“I was quite surprised, because there aren’t many things he’d go out of his way to do for me! I’m joking, he’s very good really.

“He brought the ad home and said to me I should think about it and give it a go.”

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That advert meant, in 1995, the Helen Ward story was off and running.

“I went to the first training session, which was indoors on a hard floor, and I was just kicking the ball against the wall. The manager came up to me and said ‘I want you to come and train with the A team,” she said.

“He obviously saw something in me at the age of nine. That weekend I was asked to play in the Under-10s team in a little tournament, and in the first game of that tournament I scored a hat-trick.

“I never really looked back after that!

“A lot of players say they start off as a centre forward and end up as a centre back, but thankfully I’ve managed to keep myself as high up the pitch as possible. It’s probably more to do with my lack of tackling ability actually!

“That was how it started, and at the same time I was playing for my primary school team with the boys. There was me and my best friend playing in the boys team, and a couple of girls from the year above us.”

Even as recently as the mid-1990s, it was still uncommon to find too many female footballers.

“Yeah there weren’t many of us at school, but when we got into the boys team and we got noticed, our teacher said we’d start a girls team,” she recalled.

“We found more who wanted to join in and we did have a girls team as well.

“So I was playing football all the time, with the boys and the girls at school, and also training and playing with Watford.

“It was fine in primary school and because I was playing for Watford I didn’t really need a boys team to play for.

“And I was quite lucky because I was playing for a good standard of girls team: the Hertfordshire League was pretty decent, and we were playing against the likes of Arsenal in competitions.

“I remember I was playing against Alex Scott from the age of 10 right up until senior level.

“Chris Buxton, who has sadly passed away, was massive in that time. He was the only male teacher in our school but he had no issue with having girls in his team. If we were good enough, we played in the team.

“At that time, I didn’t realise just how refreshing his attitude was.”

As well as there being far less female footballers 25 years ago than there are now, there was also still a ridiculous amount of stigma attached to those who did play.

“I didn’t get bullied because I played football, there were no questions about me playing football. I just played and I loved it. I didn’t know any different,” said Ward.

“It’s only now I’m older that I understand other girls at the same time didn’t have the same luck and there wasn’t a similar route for them.

“They were stopped from playing football and they were picked on because they wanted to play football.

“I was sort of sheltered from that, because my family and friends, as well as the teachers at Bromet primary school, were very supportive.”

Having been among the first girl footballers at her school, did that set the tone for Helen being a leader and pioneer of the women’s game?

“Possibly, sub-consciously, that has played a part in how I’ve approached my career,” she said.

“It’s not something I was doing intentionally but I have always wanted to help give others opportunities because I was lucky enough to have those opportunities when I was young.

“I don’t want to see girls or boys held back from doing what they love for any reason. I like to push boundaries and give chances to people when I can.

“We get so many more requests to go into schools now and work with their girls and play football. It’s so much more normal now.”

Of course, women and girls’ football in the British Isles was given a massive shot in the arm last summer when England won the Euros.

“There’s no doubt the success of the England Lionesses has helped a lot. They won on a global stage and everybody knows about it,” Ward said.

“We know that the Lionesses have led girls to thinking football is something they’d like to get involved in, or parents see it as a sport their daughters can play.

“The Lionesses winning the Euros was huge. For the girls themselves as individuals, it has changed their lives. You see their faces all over the place which is brilliant.

“The players are fronting all sorts of campaigns and getting sponsorships, and that’s brilliant because they are being treated in exactly the same way that a male player would be.

“But there’s the bigger picture, which I’m sure they’d agree, and the effect they’ve had on the women’s game in the UK.

England's Euro victory was a huge moment for women's football in this coountry (Image: Action Images)

“Just recently we’ve had the commitment from Government for the increased provision of sport in schools and equal opportunities for girls to play football in schools. They will have access to exactly the same as what the boys have. It’s unbelievable that it wasn’t the case before really.

“Then you look at the attendances in the Women’s Super League in particular, and they have got a lot better. We’ve seen more commitment from their clubs to play games at the big stadiums.

“Chelsea are filling Kingsmeadow on a regular basis, Boreham Wood is regularly selling out for Arsenal games. And then when these teams play at their own main stadium, the attendances are far bigger than ever before.

“When you see attendances at women’s games in the tens of thousands, then nobody can call it a minority or fringe sport.

“Ok, the tickets are cheaper and there will always be comments about the women’s games not bringing in the same revenue as the men. But give us a chance to grow – then the revenue will grow as well.

“The record signing in the Premier League was Alan Shearer for £15m for a long time. Now it’s 10 times that, and it’s crazy money.

“It’s evolution and growth, and it takes time and perseverance.”

Through her work as Ambassador for Women’s Football at Watford FC – which it was confirmed will become her role when she announced her retirement from playing at the end of this season – Ward is able to tell young players the story of the women’s game.

“We’ve been giving a presentation in schools about women’s football and it talks about the ban on women playing football that lasted 50 years,” she said.

“The first national women’s league wasn’t started until 1994 I think, that’s 100 years later than the first men’s league. Women football is massively behind, and so it’s natural that we are not going to be at the same level as the men are now.

“But with media and social media and the other ways people can access football, we can now put the women’s game out there more.

“The Lionesses winning a major competition in this country at Wembley – and selling the place out for one of the biggest attendances at any final ever – has done so much.

“Even in Wales, since the Euros, the attendances we had in our Autumn games went up every time.

“The Welsh men’s team have been doing brilliantly since 2015/16 by qualifying for back-to-back Euros and then the World Cup Finals.

“Although the World Cup ended disappointingly, for a small nation like Wales to be there and competing was incredibly inspirational.

“Rob Page has a very friendly demeanour and he regularly comes to the women’s games and knows a lot about the team and the players.

“A lot of Welsh people have been brought up on rugby as their main sport, but that has changed massively over the last few years – and I’m sure Rob and his team have played a big part in that.

“The Football Association of Wales is like a big family, it’s not a case of supporting the men or the women. There is a lot of crossover.”

Going back to her own playing career, Ward got the first hint that football could be more than just a hobby when she progressed from junior to senior teams.

“As I was getting into the senior team at Watford, I don’t want to say it was easy because that’s not true, but I felt comfortable in senior football and I was only 15,” she recounted.

“I didn’t find it a massive step up. It is daunting to go from Under-16 football into senior football, but I found I was at home at that level.

“That was as much down to the people around me: the players, the staff, the coaches were really helping me settle in senior football.

Helen tucks one away for Watford. (Image: Andrew Waller)

“We were in the South East Combination League, which is the third tier, equivalent to where Watford are now. We got promoted in my second season into the Southern Premier League and we had two or three seasons there, and then we went up to the top tier.

“That season where we went up I think I scored 40 or 50 goals and I was getting to an age where I was taking it a bit more seriously while still having fun, and I was still paying to play!

“I was 19 or 20 and we were playing against Arsenal, Chelsea, all the big teams, and we were competing. I think we finished mid table.”

However, understandably her success caught the eye of the clubs in the top half of that same table.

That meant, in 2009, a transfer to Arsenal, who had been at the top of women’s football in England for some time.

“I had one full season in the National League with Watford, and I think I was second or third top scorer that season. I think Lianne Sanderson scored about 30 for Arsenal.

“Then halfway through the next season Arsenal came in for me. And that was probably the moment when I realised I could make a career out of football.

“Watford was everything I’d ever known, I was captain, I was scoring, I was happy here. I was the big fish in a little pond.

“It was late November, early December, and at the start of the same week Chelsea came in for me. The Chelsea of then wasn’t the Chelsea we know now, and I said I wasn’t interested.

“Then Leeds came in, and that was mad because at that time women weren’t moving halfway across the country to play football. They were a good side, but I’d have had to have moved and found a job, so I said no thanks.

“Then, at the end of the week, in came Arsenal. It was bizarre: in the space of a few days I’d had three offers.

“I just remember thinking ‘What is going on here? Why do these clubs want me?'

“When Arsenal showed interest it was really hard because I wanted to stay at Watford and do well with them, but I also knew I’d not get an opportunity to join a club like Arsenal again.

“They were flying. Two years before they’d won the Champions League, they’d done the treble.”

By joining Arsenal she was a teammate – albeit very briefly – of another Watford footballing legend, Kelly Smith.

Alex Scott and Kelly Smith celebrate Arsenal's 2016 FA Cup victory with the then-manager Pedro Martinez Losa (Image: Action Images)

“The reason Arsenal were looking for new players was because, in the upcoming January, Kelly Smith, Alex Scott and Karen Carney were all going to America,” said Ward.

“So I was at Arsenal for about a month with those three players before they went to America.

“In theory, I was a Kelly Smith replacement which is ridiculous because nobody could fill Kelly’s shoes. It was a pressure I didn’t need.

“The chance to go to America did come up for me as well, in terms of going to college, earlier in my career. I’d agreed to go and then at the last minute decided it wasn’t for me.

“I wasn’t massively fussed about the academic side of things. I would have had to redo a year I’d already done at University, and I just didn’t feel it was for me.

“I don’t regret that. I still think now it was the right decision.”

Regardless of what club she was playing for, one think that Ward had to do which pretty much every other Watford legend didn’t was hold down a full-time job alongside playing.

“A lot of the time I was working for a coaching company, where we went into schools and offered lots of different sports.

“I always found jobs that were 9 to 3, 9 to 4, hours that allowed me to play football and train.

“It was a case of juggling, but if you want to do something badly enough you find a way and you find the time. That’s one of my big things: if I don’t want to do something I’ll find an excuse. If I do, then I’ll find time.

“That’s how I live my life. If I find myself making excuses then I think whether I really want to do something, and then I have to make a decision.

“I had to work. Obviously I’d rather have had the option not to work, but I had to earn a living.

“I was usually working in schools. I was a teaching assistant in a school where my Mum worked, and I did that for a few years.

“I always had to have a job to support myself, but I also managed to find jobs that allowed me to follow my football career.”

• Part two of this exclusive in-depth interview with Helen Ward will be published online tomorrow.

• Watford Women have a key match in the FA Women’s National League Southern Premier Division tomorrow, when they travel to face MK Dons (2pm kick at Stadium MK).

Click here for a match preview and details of tickets and how to get to Stadium MK.

Watford are fourth in the table, six points behind leaders Ipswich Town but with two games in hand.

• This weekend marks Women's Football Weekend. Click here for details of some of the games taking place at many of the biggest stadiums around the country.