He remained in Swansea for another year, working in the local steelworks whilst playing local football, until Swansea Town manager Haydn Green visited Ford's home. Green had taken over Swansea in 1939 and had set about establishing the side as a feeder club for local youth talent due to a lack of finances, offering 17-year-old Ford an amateur contract in 1940 before signing him to his first professional contract with Swansea two years later. With the Football League suspended due to the Second World War, Ford featured for the club in wartime Combination leagues. Having spent his youth career as a defender, during his war service, Ford grew substantially in both height and weight and the Sergeant Major in charge of the local army football side switched him to centre-forward where he flourished, scoring 41 times between 1945 and 1946 in regional wartime competitions. After he was moved from his original army posting in Rhyl to new barracks in Colchester, Ford appeared for Leyton Orient in wartime fixtures, scoring three times in four appearances for the side. Following the return of league football after wartime, he made his fully professional competitive debut and played sixteen times in the first half of the 1946–47 season for the "Swans" in the Second Division before moving to Aston Villa in January 1947 for a fee of £9,500 plus Tommy Dodds.