Martin Wood gets buzz back at Partick Thistle

Partick Thistle new boy Martin Woods admits he felt lost during his period out of the game.

Woods joined the Jags on a free last week after leaving Ross County at the end of last season.

The 31-year-old was out of the game for several months, and admitted his life lost a bit of structure as he waited for a way back into professional football, which started with a five-minute cameo in the victry over St Johnstone last Saturday.

“It’s been really good to get back in the football environment,” the former Leeds trainee said.

“I feel like I’ve missed the structure to my life where you’re in somewhere day in, day out.

“I thrive for that set-up, so I felt a bit lost when it was taken out of my life for a couple of months. It’s good to be back in a football environment.”

He added: “You feel as if you’re waiting by your phone constantly, looking at what are the best options, and Saturdays are the longest days of the week when they used to be the best.

“It was a hard time, but now it feels as though the hunger is back tenfold. I just can’t wait to get going.

“You miss the match-day feeling. Even coming into the ground on a Saturday, you get that buzz and excitement, and then when the manager says you’re coming on, you’re like ‘right, we’re back again’. It’s a nice feeling to get again.”

Despite only just arriving at Firhill, Woods has already made it clear that he does not intend to rest on his laurels, and has challenged his team-mates to prove where they belong in the Ladbrokes Premiership.

Thistle travel to Rangers today after picking up seven points out of a possible nine last week to climb off the foot of the table and Woods thinks there is more work to be done.

“My targets are to get the club up the league, where I feel it’s good enough to be,” he said. “We should be looking to climb the league as soon as possible, there’s too much quality to be  sitting where we are.”