Cliftonville fans are planning a ‘warm’ welcome for Nacho Novo when the striker visits Solitude as a Glentoran player.
The Spanish EBT recipient joined Glentoran last month and instantly became the highest profile player in the NIFL.
Former Celtic reserve Gerry Lyttle is in charge of Cliftonville and looking forward to tonight’s match against a side that they finished last season 12 points ahead of.
“I might have had a poster of Nacho on my wall but only for throwing darts at!” Lyttle joked to the Belfast Telegraph.
“It’s great for the league when a high-profile player comes in but I saw some of the highlights from Glentoran’s game at the weekend and it was all about Nacho. It could be a big distraction for the Glens as he is such a big name.
“I’m sure the Red Army will give him a warm welcome but players can expect a bit of stick.
“When big names come into our league like Keith Gillespie and now Nacho they are going to get plenty of attention and they should be used to it.
“In terms of what he brings to the Glentoran team I think he has still got it upstairs. The legs are perhaps not as quick as they used to be but he’ll have a good football brain and when he’s really fit he’ll be more dangerous.
“It can take a few weeks to build up that match sharpness and he probably won’t start the game against us but we will focus on the 11 Glentoran players that face us and the games against them at Solitude have been very tight.”
In Saturday’s opening matches Cliftonville drew 2-2 away to Ards while Glentoran beat Dungannon Swifts 1-0 at home.
