Grateful Ward grasps his chance

IT may not be too far from Dalymount to Lansdowne Road.

But it must take quite a leap to go from a tension-filled battle at the bottom end of the Premier League to a tepid bout in front of a near-empty Lansdowne Road.

But mercifully for Stephen Ward, the Irish debutant didn’t have too much time to think about any of it. The former Bohemians man, whose first international goal opened the scoring against Northern Ireland and also capped a fine first cap after Sunday’s survival heroics for Wolves, only found out he was starting yesterday afternoon.