Dingwall may be nearly 200 miles from home, but Ross County midfielder Jim O’Brien has taken no time to settle after being reunited with several former team-mates.
O’Brien joined the Staggies earlier this week from League One club Shrewsbury Town on loan until the end of the season.
The midfielder, who began his career with Celtic, played alongside Staggies manager Jim McIntyre when he spent a loan stint with Dunfermline as a teenager, and has also played alongside five of the County squad.
Alexandria-born O’Brien has spent the last six years in England at Barnsley, Coventry City and Scunthorpe before his move to the Shrews last summer, but the 29-year-old was keen to return to Scotland.
O’Brien could make his debut in today’s Scottish Cup match against Championship club Dundee United and said: “The idea of coming up the road was always in the back of my head. It’s a nice to get home, although Barnsley to Dumbarton is just as far as Dingwall to Dumbarton.
“Jim got in touch and the fact I knew him from our time at Dunfermline, and he’s from Alexandria as well, meant we had a connection. The fact I have a good relationship with him made it a pretty easy decision.
“He was eager to get me up to have a look at the facilities, so I knew everything was going to be spot on and having known a good few of the players here, I didn’t see it being a problem settling in.
“I played with Scott Fox and Michael Gardyne at Celtic. I played with Martin Woods and Jay McEveley at Barnsley and with Paul Quinn at Motherwell.
“It’s nice to hear lots of Scottish accents again because that’s one thing I could not get used to for the last six or seven years.
“I’m looking forward to getting started and it’s all about what happens on the pitch.”
O’Brien is contracted to Shrewsbury until 2018, but McIntyre has already offered the incentive of a permanent deal should he impress during his stay in the Highlands.
O’Brien added: “Things changed at Shrewsbury in the last few weeks. I was in the team and playing well, and then the manager Paul Hurst changed things.
“I was out of the team for a couple of weeks and then he brought someone else in and it looked as if I wasn’t going to play.
“I spoke to him and he was quite receptive to letting me go even though I’ve got another year on my contract there.
“The loan suits both parties as well, as County get to have a look at me and I get to see what it’s like and how the club operates, with talk of a contract in the summer if things go well.
“It’s a tester for my family life as well. I’ll see how the next few months go, but I’m really looking forward to it.”
