KELLY'S HEROES; AMATEUR LEAGUE CLUBS STRIVE TO IMPROVE ON AND OFF THE PARK Ciaran wants to turn around fortunes of his boyhood club.(Sport)

Byline: BY MARTIN MAWHINNEY

HAVE you heard the one about a 12-year-old boy who used to take notes at his football training sessions and then went on to become the Amateur League's youngest manager, aged just 20?

Well, it is no joke.

In fact, Larne Tech OB boss Ciaran Kelly couldn't be more serious when he says he wants to restore the club to its former glory in the Premier Section once again.

It has been three years now since the Larne boys were rubbing shoulders with the likes of Killyleagh, Albert Foundry, and Newington - and the young manager feels this is has already been too long.

Now the club have made the ambitious decision to turn to youth to get them back to where they feel they belong.

It is a policy that has caused much discussion amongst Kelly's contemporaries, but he is eager to repay the faith of his committee and prove the doubters wrong.

He said: "I know people are expecting me to fail, because of the age I am. I didn't get the job until mid-July, and I was starting from scratch.

"We are very young squad - our oldest player is 25 - and I know people have been saying we are too young. They have no respect for us, so I suppose we will have to earn that respect.

"I have been looking at the internet forums, and I see supporters saying this and that about us. It's up to us to go out and show them what we are capable of."

As if Kelly is not under enough pressure to prove himself, he also has the additional burden of following in the footsteps of his father, who was in charge of the club last year.

But, in typically determined fashion, he doesn't feel this will be any sort of problem for him.

He said: "They are pretty big shoes to fill - he was hard to work with at times, but he was a great motivator and had good people helping him out.

"I know people are already saying 'your father's done this and that,' but that isn't for me to worry about. I just have to get on with the job, and see how I get on.

"It would be a privilege to do better than him."

Kelly played for Larne Youth from the age of 8 through to under-16 level, before featuring for Larne Olympic and Larne, before moving to the Tech two years ago.

He learnt his trade from Kenny Shiels, Jim Hagan, and in particular Johneen Black, who he thanks for inspiring him to be where he is today.

While management is usually an afterthought reserved for players reaching their twilight years, Kelly broke the mould in showing a keen interest in the area from the tender age of 12.

He recalled: "I used to have this notepad, and after every training session, I would go home and take notes of what we had done that day.

"I used to think to myself, 'these will come in handy some day - and that's turned out to be the case!"

After a terrible start to the season - five straight defeats against Rathfern Rangers, Grove United, East Belfast, Abbey Villa, and Rosario - the Tech have picked things up with back-to-back victories over Crumlin United and Knockbreda.

It was hardly the ideal start for Kelly in his new career, but he admits the all-important first win over Crumlin was particularly sweet.

"You should have seen us at the final whistle," he smiled. "You would have thought we had won the league!

"We had been unlucky in some of the matches before that, so it was nice to finally get a result. "What really encouraged me was that we outplayed them from start to finish."

It was the type of performance that has given Larne Tech's rookie manager the hope that his team can progress further up the table in the weeks to come, and possibly even mount a title challenge.

That will, of course, depend on them not dropping more points in the next couple of months, but it's fair to say that Kelly and his assistant Sammy Smith are feeling quietly confident about their prospects for the season.

Kelly added: "No-one is running away with it so far. Okay, Rathfern have won all their games so far, but behind them, teams are dropping points every week.

"If we can start putting a few wins together, we can climb up the table and get ourselves into a good position. We will not be at the bottom end of the table at the end of the season - definitely not.

"Larne Tech are a Premier Section club, and it's our job to get us back there."

CAPTION(S):

AIM! Larne Tech OB boss Ciaran Kelly wants to get his club back into the Premier Section soon