Spy turns supporter

After almost a month attempting to knock Celtic out of EuropeGerry Lyttle can resume his role as a supporter tonight.

Last week the Cliftonville coach watched his part-timers put up an encouraging display losing out 2-0 to Neil Lennon’s men in the Champions League second round qualifier.

Tonight Celtic can move a step closer to the group stage of the competition by beating Elfsborg with Lyttle hoping that his old club can repeat last season’s thrilling campaign.

“I’m sure that Lenny and his backroom staff will have the players raring to go against Elfsborg,” the Belfast bhoy stated. “I’d be very surprised if there was a slip up.

“A big club like this has to be in the Champions League, it’ll be very interesting to watch them, not just as a supporter, but to see how well we fared against Celtic over two matches compared to other full time clubs.

“It’ll be strange watching them play again having studied them so closely over the last few weeks.

“Everyone at Celtic has been great to Cliftonville, they appreciated our efforts and went out of their way for us, they realise that we are Celtic supporters.

“Lenny was top class with us, Celtic don’t forget their roots, I’m looking forward to watching them in Europe- half professionally and half supporter.”

While Celtic plot further European glory it’s back to domestic business for Cliftonville after a month that the north Belfast club will never forget.

Hosting Celtic in a competitive match was a dream come true for the Irish champions with the club showing themselves in a positive light on and off the pitch.

Having tasted the Champions League everyone is gearing up for the domestic campaign with the incentive of another crack at European football again next season.

“Getting Celtic again would be like a lotto win,” Lyttle smiled. “We’re confident now and well prepared for the league campaign ahead, hopefully we can repeat the success of last season.

“We’ve got to get into the players head and dangle the carrot of the Champions League in front of them, these things can happen in football, we want to win the league and be a part of this every year. It’s been a dream come true for me to be a coach in the Champions League against my old team, it’s unreal and the whole club knows the incentives in front of us.

“We brought a great support over to Celtic and hopefully we can get more and more of them coming to watch us every week.

“If we’re successful on the pitch we know that the fans will be there in numbers. We want to give them success, we don’t want to be a one hit wonder.

“All season the supporters have been there backing us through thick and thin, playing Celtic is a reward for them. They had a ball in Glasgow and deserve days like that.

“It’s upto us to give them success, if we do that I’m sure they’ll be there every week backing us.”

On a personal note the games against Celtic have given Lyttle an insight into the demands and challenges of coaching at the highest level.

“I finished playing a bit early through injury but now I’m in my third season as a coach at Cliftonville,” he added.

“I’ve always had ambitions to coach and manage, my new goal would be to manage full-time across the water- the same ambition that I had as a player.

“I’m in the middle of doing my pro-licence, ultimately I’d like to be coaching or managing full-time in Scotland or England.

“I have a lot of good friends still involved in the game and I get a lot of advice from them. Brendan Rogers and Neil Lennon are two examples of young Irish coaches at massive clubs, they’ve both had success.

“Everyone has goals and dreams, If I can achieve mine it’ll be brilliant, if not at least I’ll be able to say that I tried.”

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