Michael was born in the County Tyrone town of Omagh on 17th April, 1984.

Ward began his career as a young starlet at Leeds United, with the club at it's recent peak - challenging at the top of the English Premier League and in the Champions League.

Aged 16, he joined the Elland Road outfit in 2000 and spent three seasons in the youth setup at the Yorkshire club, before being released at the beginning of the club's financial difficulties. He had also won numerous caps at various youth levels for Northern Ireland during his time at Leeds.

In August 2003, Michael returned home and signed for hometown club, Omagh Town - who constantly punched above their weight under boss Roy McCreadie with a team of local players.

However a shock in January 2004 came when the influential McCreadie moved to Newry Town and was to be replaced with Ballymena United legend, Johnny Speak.

Despite a downturn in league form, Speak guided unfancied Omagh Town to the semi-finals of the Irish Cup and Ward blossomed in his first season in the Irish League finishing joint second in the St. Julian's Road goalscoring charts with nine strikes.

In the summer of 2004, his former manager, Roy McCreadie brought him to Newry City, but it proved to be a disaster as the border side made a poor start to the season, and Michael was seemingly made the scape-goat.

McCreadie transfer-listed Ward - who had just began studying law at Queen's University. And having being frozen out of the Newry City side, he rejoined Omagh Town in January 2005, in a swap deal for Richard Clarke.

Things didn't get much better after the move back to his hometown club as despite scoring three times in the second half of the season, Omagh finished rock bottom of the Irish League under Paul Kee - and relegation unfortunately forced them out of business.

In August 2005, Dungannon Swifts' manager Joe McAree snapped up the 21-year-old free agent - as Michael was given the unenviable task of filling the boots of the late Gary Bownes.

However, Ward rose to the task and played a vital role in the Swifts' best ever season; scoring 19 goals as they finished fourth in the Irish League and qualified for Europe for the first time in the club's history.

Michael also secured his first senior medal as he scored the second of Dungannon's three goals against Glenavon in the final of the Mid-Ulster Cup. He also performed well in Dungannon's first Setanta All-Ireland Cup campaign.

His form didn't go unnoticed at International level, as he was called up to the Northern Ireland Under-21 squad by Roy Millar for an end-of-season friendly against their Scottish counterparts. Ward came on as a second half substitute for his only Under-21 cap in the 1-0 win.

Depsite making his European debut in the Intertoto Cup against Icelandic side Keflavik; the following season proved a bit more difficult for Michael as the emergence of Mark McAllister and the signing of Rory Hamill forced him down the pecking order.

In December 2006, he left Stangmore Park by mutual consent citing that he had become disillusioned with football at the time.

At the end of the January transfer window he surprisingly re-appeared at the Oval, signing for Paul Millar's struggling Glentoran side in a fresh attempt to re-ignite his football career.

To be continued...