During The X Factor competition, Ward was mentored by manager Louis Walsh. The Bookies' favourite to win the show, he defeated duo Journey South and singer Andy Abraham in the final screened by ITV1 by a margin of 1.2% of the vote, out of a reputed 10.8 million phone votes cast by viewers.
His first single, "That's My Goal", was released in the UK on 21 December 2005 and became the last number one of 2005, hitting the top spot on 31 December. It sold 313,000 copies on its first day of sales, making it the third fastest selling single of all time (behind Elton John's "Candle in the Wind" and Will Young's "Evergreen", which sold 685,000 and 400,000 copies in their first days of sale respectively).
Ward's prize, as winner, was a recording contract with Simon Cowell's Syco record label, which is co-owned by Sony Music Entertainment. The contract had a stated value of ?1 million, of which ?150,000 was a cash advance and the remainder was allocated to recording and marketing costs.
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