Gerard Lyttle (born 27 November 1977, in

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

) is a Northern Irish football

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

and former football player. He is the former manager of League of Ireland Premier Division club Sligo Rovers.

Playing career

A right-sided or central

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

, he began his youth career with Star Of The Sea before signing a professional contract with

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

in December 1994 where he entered the youth team pool. After a further transitional season in 1994–95, Lyttle made more frequent U-18 appearances the following year and moved up to the reserves ahead of the 1996–97 season. Following a season at that level, Lyttle moved on loan to

Swindon Town Swindon Town Football Club is a professional football club based in Swindon, Wiltshire, England. The team currently competes in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. The club has played home matches at the County Ground sin ...

in July 1997. His time at the club was cut short by injury and he returned to Celtic to make more reserve appearances throughout 1997–98. Lyttle departed Celtic in 1998 and signed for

Peterborough United Peterborough United Football Club is an English professional football club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England. The team compete in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. Peterborough have a long-standing ...

. He again struggled to make inroads into the first team after a single

League Cup In several sports, most prominently association football, a league cup or secondary cup generally signifies a cup competition for which entry is restricted only to teams in a particular league. The first national association football tournament t ...

outing in August 1998 against

Reading Reading is the process of taking in the sense or meaning of letters, symbols, etc., especially by sight or touch. For educators and researchers, reading is a multifaceted process involving such areas as word recognition, orthography (spelling ...

. Lyttle negotiated a switch to non-league

Kingstonian Kingstonian Football Club is an English semi-professional football club based in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London which currently plays in the Isthmian League Premier Division. The club was founded in 1885 by YMC ...

but again managed only a single appearance on 4 December 1999. After seeing out 1999–00 with a spell at

Northampton Town Northampton Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in the town of Northampton, England. The team plays in , the fourth tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1897, the club competed in the Midland ...

, a return to

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

beckoned at the end of the season. Lyttle went on to play for Irish League sides

Ballymena United Ballymena United Football Club is a semi-professional football club from Northern Ireland. Based in Ballymena, County Antrim, the team competes in the NIFL Premiership and plays home matches at the Ballymena Showgrounds which is owned by the ...

, Newry City,

Cliftonville Cliftonville is a coastal area of the town of Margate, situated to the east of the main town, in the Thanet district of Kent, South East England, United Kingdom. It also contains the area known as Palm Bay. The original Palm Bay estate was ...

Lisburn Distillery Lisburn Distillery Football Club is a Northern Irish intermediate football club who are based in Ballyskeagh, County Down. A founder member of the Irish League, they currently play in the NIFL Premier Intermediate League, the third tier of t ...

and Cliftonville again, before dropping into the junior ranks with Newington YC in 2006. Throughout his playing career, Lyttle was capped 8 times for Northern Ireland U21s, and also received caps at U16 and U18 level.

Managerial career

Lyttle took charge of junior club Malachians in 2009. He then joined the coaching set-up at Cliftonville, taking temporary charge following Tommy Breslin's resignation in September 2015. He was awarded the post permanently the following month and led the club to victory in the 2015–16 Northern Ireland Football League Cup. Lyttle resigned in April 2017 to take the post of full-time manager at Sligo Rovers and steered them to safety in his first season in charge with a 9th place finish. Lyttle left Sligo Rovers in October 2018.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lyttle, Gerard 1977 births Living people Football managers from Northern Ireland Peterborough United F.C. players Association football midfielders Association footballers from Northern Ireland