New signing Darren Barr insists he is ready to make an impact with Ross County following a nightmare end to last season.
The Scotland international spent the previous season with Kilmarnock, but last played for the Ayrshire side in November after undergoing a hip operation.
After being released by Killie at the end of the season, defender Barr has been rebuilding his fitness over the summer, spending time on trial with Motherwell and Partick Thistle.
Staggies interim manager Stevie Ferguson moved quickly to sign Barr on a one-year deal before Monday night’s transfer deadline, with the 29 year-old admitting his move to the Highlands was completed just 24 hours after he first knew of County’s interest.
Barr said: “I got a call from my agent on Sunday night. Steven Ferguson phoned me up from there and we got it sorted on Monday. It was all quite quick but that’s just one of these things in football.
“I’ve been a few places training over the summer, but they all fizzled out. I’ve had a good pre-season though so hopefully I can hit the ground running.
“Last season was frustrating. I played the first 14 games for Kilmarnock and felt a bit of pain after that, having felt a bit before that as well. It was probably worse than I thought it was going to be and it just scaled from there.
“However, I got back at the end of the season and got fit over the summer. It was a frustrating injury, but it’s made me hungry and I want to get going again.
“It was good to get another 90 minutes for the Development Squad on Tuesday. I had a few games over pre-season, but it’s good to now get going at a club.”
Former Hearts and Falkirk centre half Barr has so far been impressed with the quality of the Victoria Park squad, and hopes County can reverse a poor start to the campaign which has seen them lose their first five league games.
He added: “Confidence is a wee bit low, but there are a lot of technically good players. I have spoken to a few of the boys and it seems like we’ve played well in spells. We will see how it goes, but from what I’ve seen in training we have some good players, so can hopefully try and kick on.
“I think there’s pressure no matter where a player goes. As a defender I need to try and make things gel and as a backline we need to get settled quickly.
“We had a bad day against Hamilton on Saturday but we just have to build up consistency and a bit of confidence. In the defence everybody has to show collectiveness.”