Forest Green Rovers head coach Steve Cotterill has declared that he has “loved having” Jed Ward at the club after Bristol Rovers recalled the goalkeeper from his loan at the National League side on Monday.
The Gas were forced to recall Ward after Josh Griffiths had been recalled by his parent club West Brom on deadline day, creating a domino effect.
The Baggies had sold first-choice goalkeeper Alex Palmer to Premier League side Ipswich Town on the final day of the window and thus opted to bring Griffiths back with the 23-year-old expected to be the Championship side’s number one for the foreseeable future.
In response, Rovers recalled Ward and also signed another goalkeeper in Myles Roberts on loan from Watford for the remainder of the season to offer extra cover.
Ward has been a key player for Forest Green in their National League promotion campaign so far and, speaking to club media ahead of their 2-0 win at Dagenham and Redbridge last night, Cotterill said: “We’ll miss him. He left the hotel today to go back because he’s got to be in training tomorrow. He’s been a brilliant lad. I’ve loved having him around the place. [I] really, really enjoyed working with him.
“I still feel as though he would have benefited longer term by fulfilling the season because I think he’s come on a fair bit. It would have been nice to finish the job with him.
“It was sad really. It was sad when he left the hotel today. Obviously, we didn’t get to know about it until we were down on the bus and not far off of Dagenham which made it quite difficult really.
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“He goes with our best wishes and I’ve said to him anyway that before the end of the season there’ll be a midweek game for sure that he perhaps won’t be involved in on they haven’t got a game and he can come along, he can come back into the dressing room with the boys. He’s more than welcome. He doesn’t have to come to Forest Green and sit in the stand. He can be back in the dressing room with the lads.”
Ward made 28 league appearances for Forest Green, keeping 10 clean sheets. The original plan had been for the 21-year-old to pick up as many appearances as possible to continue his development while the Gas plugged the gap with the loan of Griffiths.
Up until deadline day, that plan had been working perfectly with the Rovers academy product starring up the road in Gloucestershire while Griffiths has been the Gas’ player of the season so far.
Although losing the West Brom goalkeeper was a major blow, Ward proved last campaign that he’s certainly capable of stepping up to the plate in League One while Roberts arrives in BS7 with decent reviews too.
Ward made 18 appearances in the third tier for his boyhood club in the second half of last term and made his England Under-20s debut in the summer while also being named the Gas’ Young Player of the Season and signing a bumper new four-year contract.