Gary Neville will not have the luxury of easing himself into his new job as coach of Valencia with a straightforward first game.His first match in charge is a must-win clash today at home again Lyon in Champions League Group H.Valencia need to win and hope that Gent slip up at group leaders Zenit St Petersburg in order to qualify for the round of 16.Valencia are third in the group, one point below Gent, after a stuttering campaign which saw Portuguese coach Nuno Espirito axed 10 days ago.Neville, 40, was a surprise choice as replacement for the hapless Nuno, at least for the Valencia fans.The appointment was connected with Neville knowing Valencia owner Peter Lim through their joint ownership of Salford City, along with younger brother Phil - who has been an assistant at Valencia for five months now - plus former Manchester United teammates Nicky Butt, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.The Valencia job will be a veritable baptism of fire for Neville, whose coaching experience is rather limited. However, he does hold the UEFA Pro Coaching Licenses and has been assistant coach of the England team under Roy Hodgson since 2012.But it remains to be seen how well prepared he is to step into the cauldron of Mestalla, where the fans are notoriously demanding - they unanimously asked for the blood of Nuno throughout the autumn - and six coaches have been sacked in three years, and where Lim is already becoming an unpopular figure.Neville has been honest enough to admit that "I would question it (the appointment) as a neutral observer and would be skeptical, wanting to be proven otherwise."He has only been given a six-month contract by Lim but does not see that as an obstacle."The only way to approach a football job will be as if it's a permanent job. I don't believe you can make short-term decisions. I don't believe in working that way."The atmosphere at Mestalla has been improved by Saturday's late 1-1 draw against Liga leaders Barcelona - despite 10 players being out injured - which took Los Ches up to eighth.Brother Phil and club stalwart Voro were in charge for the visit of Barca. Gary officially took over Monday, with his first training session, and was clearly pleased to have his sibling alongside him."If Phil wasn't here I would want him here. He's diligent, hard-working and, from my point of view, I'm delighted he's part of the coaching set-up. We don't do niceties and we talk about actions and what we're going to do."We have big games coming up and at the moment the most important thing is to win games regardless of style."Neville added that he was always very impressed by the ambiance at Mestalla when he played there for Manchester United.He will be desperate for the long-suffering "Valencianistas" to be positive and supportive today, rather than critical and unhelpful as they were with Nuno. Neville has already made a good impression on the players, as promising young left-back Jose Gaya said: "He has not wanted to give us too many ideas already, but he has said that he wants us to play as a real team, compact and solid.""We are really looking forward to training with him. Now we have to focus on this new phase for the club, starting with Wednesday's game."