Ross Stewart has been forced to play a game of patience in his Ross County career so far but the attacker has no doubt he made the right choice in leaving Premiership side St Mirren to join the Dingwall outfit.
Stewart joined County from the Buddies on a three-year deal in August but has found opportunities hard to come by so far, with the only start from his four appearances coming in an Irn-Bru Cup victory away to Hearts Colts.
The 22-year-old says the lack of game time has not caused him to regret turning his back on the chance of top-flight football in Paisley to return to the Championship.
Stewart said: “I just felt it was the right move for me in terms of where Ross County were at and where they want to go.
“I knew with the strength of squad here they would be up near the top of the league challenging. That was one of the selling points.
“Hopefully we can go up because the Premiership is where you want to be playing, challenging the best teams in Scotland.
“It was difficult to leave St Mirren. They gave me the platform to come into full-time football and I owe the club a lot.
“The season they had last year was incredible. To go and do what they did, I’ll remember that for a long time.
“But in football sometimes you have to be selfish and do what’s best for yourself and I just felt the right thing for me was to come up here to Ross County.”
“I’m still in a settling in period up here, with a lot of things I’m looking after off the field as well as on.
“But I’ve no regrets. This is the move, when I heard Ross County were interested, I wanted to make. To get the move I was delighted.
“With everything off the field and on I’m very happy – I’m just ready to play.”
Stewart’s wait for a first team chance has not been helped by the form of some of his fellow attackers, most notably Billy Mckay who has netted four goals in his last two matches.
With Declan McManus and Brian Graham also vying for a forward place, Stewart knows he faces stiff competition, adding: “I was aware when I came up here how strong the squad was and I knew it was going to be difficult to get into the team.
“A lot of boys at the moment are just being patient, waiting on their chance, myself included.
“If called upon this weekend, I can go out and try to impress and stake a claim to keep myself in the starting 11.
“It is really competitive. There are a lot of really good strikers here at the club. Billy Mckay is doing really well and got a hat-trick a couple of weeks back and scored against Thistle.
“When other strikers are scoring goals it is difficult but it is a long season and I can hopefully play my part.”
Stewart hopes to get the nod from Stuart Kettlewell and Steven Ferguson for today’s Irn-Bru Cup last-16 tie at home to Montrose, with the Staggies co- managers hinting they will make changes.
The Irvine-born forward added: “I played in the first few rounds of the Irn-Bru Cup with St Mirren last year.
“It is a cup a lot of teams want to do well in and it is one we certainly want to do well in. We’ll do our best to go and try to win it.
“There will be no change in approach. The managers will pick a team they think can go out and win the game. That’s what we need to do.”