Goalkeeper Gary Woods believes his move to Ross County is the ideal opportunity to rescue his career after being frozen out at English League 2 side Leyton Orient.
County manager Jim McIntyre signed Woods in the dying minutes of the summer transfer window on Tuesday night after Dan Bachmann cut short his loan deal from Stoke City the previous day.
Woods came through the ranks with Manchester United and had spells at Doncaster Rovers and Watford, before joining Orient last summer.
The former England under-18 international made 23 appearances last season, but had not played since January, and wanted to leave Brisbane Road in the summer.
Woods is determined to push County’s current first choice Scott Fox for the gloves and said: “Orient have Italian owners and we had five managers last year. It always makes it a bit difficult, and we had different goalkeeping coaches coming in.
“I started pre-season really well but the owners brought in another goalkeeper. I just said to them I wanted to play games this year, so I asked to go out on loan.
“The manager did not involve me because he knew I wanted to go out on loan, or move permanently. A couple of things came up that I did not want to do, but this was the best choice, one I felt would be perfect for me at this stage in my career.
“I’ve only got a year left at Orient, and I’ll be looking to get into the team here and impress, and hopefully stay here longer.
“Before I had even caught a ball my first impressions were really good. If all goes well I’d be more than happy to stay beyond January.”
Woods was relieved his move to Scotland was completed in the nick of time.
He knew nothing of the deal until he was preparing for Orient’s Football League trophy trip to Luton Town on Tuesday, which the London outfit lost 2-1, just hours before the deadline.
After being alerted to County’s interest the 24-year-old was instantly keen to make the move north, and was relieved when the paperwork was completed.
Woods added: “It was quite late, and I did not know whether it was going to go through in time.
“I was just about to eat pre-match, and I got a call from my agent about it and it escalated really quickly.
“The manager, Ian Hendon, told me he spoke to Jim McIntyre and said he would send the fax to Luton and we would get it done.
“Then the chief executive left for home, so we had to call him back. We were wondering if it was going to get done, but it happened, and I came up on Wednesday night.
“I’m happy to be here, and hopefully I can have a successful spell.”