YORK City’s new first-team coach Des Lyttle has declared the opportunity to train Football League players was a key factor in taking a job two hours from his Staffordshire home.

Lyttle also said the chance to work under former Tamworth mentors Gary Mills and Darron Gee made the decision to further his career at Bootham Crescent an easy one.

The 40-year-old former Nottingham Forest right-back had a distinguished playing career, helping the City Ground club to finish third in the Premier League during the 1993/94 season as one of Frank Clark’s first singings – a £375,000 capture from Swansea – following the end of the Brian Clough era.

He went on to play for the likes of Ron Atkinson and Dave Bassett and also plied his trade in the top flight for Watford and West Brom.

But, since dropping out of the full-time game in 2004, Lyttle’s playing and coaching opportunities have been restricted to the non-League arena.

He hung up his boots after spells with Forest Green, Worcester City and Tamworth, where Mills made him a player-coach. Then, on Mills’ departure for the Minstermen, Lyttle spent six months in charge of the Lambs before a similar stint at the helm of Hucknall Town in the Northern Premier League first division south last season.

But the Wolverhampton-born coach is now relishing the challenge of proving his credentials in League Two, alongside Mills and assistant manager Gee, saying: “I’m coming here from Staffordshire not just from around the corner and I wouldn’t be doing that if it wasn’t for the lure of the Football League and working with the gaffer and Geebo again.

“It would have been a big ask for me otherwise but coaching jobs in the League do not come around too often and coming here is a big fillip for me. When the gaffer gave me a call, I jumped at the chance.

“The gaffer and Geebo are both honest people and the jobs they have done here in the last two years has been fantastic. They’ve got the club back where it should be after eight years out of the League.”

Lyttle is also happy to put managerial aspirations on the back burner, having resigned at Tamworth when it was leaked that former City chief Martin Foyle was to be appointed as an advisor and after “parting amicably” with Hucknall at the end of last season.

“I’ve had two little tastes of management but I’m just looking forward to working here as a coach and learning off these two,” Lyttle added.

Mills’ professional relationship with Lyttle, pictured playing for West Brom in 2001, dates back to a Masters football tournament in 2007 when they played in the same Forest side.

Soon afterwards, Mills took Lyttle to Tamworth as a player and then made him part of his coaching team.

The latest addition to City’s dugout now believes familiarity will prove benficial at Bootham Cresent, saying: “I know what he wants and he knows what I’m all about.

“I know how he likes things doing on and off the pitch, which is important now we’re back in the League. Hopefully, I can pass on my experience and that will bode well for the club in the future.”

Lyttle will also be renewing acquaintances with two of City’s squad, having played alongside captain Chris Smith for Worcester and Tamworth and at Forest at the same time as Chris Doig.

With Mills expected to give Lyttle a brief to work with the squad’s defenders, Smith and Doig can expect to be put through their paces by their former team-mate.

“I know what Smudger (Smith) brings having played with him,” Lyttle added. “He’s an out-and-out defender and a good ball player who can also be aggressive at times.

“Doigy is similar having had that grounding at Forest. I’ve also met the new signings and I’m looking forward to working with all the lads.”