Simon Charlton says ex-Norwich City colleague Lee Clark can take Huddersfield Town up

Mar 12 2010 by Dougie Thomson, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

SIMON CHARLTON has no doubt his old mate Lee Clark will bring success to Town.

As two of his old clubs, Town and Norwich City, prepare to go head to head in a crunch League I clash tomorrow, the former left-back has given the current Galpharm boss a ringing endorsement.

Huddersfield-born and now Norwich-based Charlton, who has managerial ambitions himself and is currently in charge of non-league Mildenhall Town, said: “Lee is an excellent coach and is becoming a top manager.

“I’ve known him a long time – when I was coming through the junior ranks with Town and he was emerging at Newcastle – and I saw him working at close quarters when he was assistant manager at Norwich and I was coaching in the academy.

“Lee is very dedicated and very knowledgeable. He knows what he wants and how he wants to do it, and he’s good at getting his ideas across.

“He was an excellent player himself, and he likes his sides to play the way he did, and it’s hard to see how anyone can fail to learn from him.”

Charlton, who between 1989 and 1993, made 157 appearance for Town, his first club, in a 596-game career which also took in Southampton, Birmingham City, Bolton Wanderers and Oldham Athletic, added: “I hope the fans will remain patient, because for a number of reasons, it sometimes takes time to generate success.

“But I’m convinced Lee has what it takes to get Town back to the kind of level they should be at, and because I still think of them as ‘my’ club, I’d be delighted to see them back in the Championship.”

The 38-year-old who was sold by Town to Southampton for £250,000 will be in the dug-out for Mildenhall’s Eastern Counties League Premier Division match at Felixstowe and Walton United tomorrow, but says he’ll be checking on the Town-Norwich result as soon as possible afterwards.