St Mirren boss Jim Goodwin was pleasantly surprised that he was able to tempt Jordan Jones on loan from Wigan until the end of the season.
The former Kilmarnock and Rangers winger had several options as he looked for game time after a difficult spell down south.
The Buddies boss was able to persuade the 27-year-old to return to the cinch Premiership with St Mirren and, ahead of the visit of Motherwell on Tuesday night, Goodwin said: “I am really pleased.
“We were surprised, if you like, that we were in contention because of the other clubs he had been speaking to and some of the other options that he had down in England as well.
“We tried really hard to sell St Mirren to Jordan and I explained to him that he had some really good success up here with Kilmarnock initially.
“It probably didn’t work out as well as he would have liked at Rangers but at the same time he knows the league inside out.
“He was a big part of the Kilmarnock team that were very successful under Steve Clarke and that is the Jordan Jones we hope we are going to get back.
“It is about getting Jordan back playing regularly. He is far too good to be sitting on the bench for Wigan.”
Northern Ireland international Jones is looking to be “happy again” after a “tough” spell at Wigan.
He said: “I spoke to a fair amount of managers and a couple of chief executives in this window but I just got the best feel about it from Jim and I am looking forward to working with him.
“I am at a stage of my career where it is vital I play. He wants me to get back happy in myself and enjoying my football.”
Goodwin is looking for St Mirren to extend their winning run to four in a row for the first time since the start of the season but expects Motherwell to provide the toughest of tests.
Before their weekend game against Dundee at Dens Park was postponed due to the stadium safety issues caused by high winds, the Buddies had beaten Dundee United and Aberdeen in the cinch Premiership with a Scottish Cup win over Championship side Ayr United in between.
Goodwin said: “I always expect a difficult game against Motherwell.
“They are quite a physical team, they are quite direct, they get good balls up early into (Kevin) van Veen and they have good runners off him with (Kaiyne) Woolery.
“We have to go and physically match them but if we play our own game and play the way we have played recently against the likes of United and Aberdeen then we give ourselves a good chance of carrying on the run.”
