Deadline Day signing Sam Jones believes Grimsby Town is the perfect fit for him.
The 25-year-old central midfielder has told Mariners Player that he was eager to get the move to Blundell Park.
âGood following â great fans, so for me as soon as I heard about Grimsby Town, I was definitely on the edge of my seat thinking âIâd love to play for themâ.Â
âUnbelievable fan base. Thatâs obviously a massive up for the club and a massive thing for me to come here.â
He continued: âThe size of the club, the manager, good players here, so I just feel itâs a good opportunity and a privilege to play for a club like Grimsby Town.â
The attacking midfielder, who was Gatesheadâs top scorer this season with 11 goals in all competitions, admitted heâs always admired Town boss Marcus Bignot.
He said: âThe manager here, I remember playing against his former team last season when I was at Alfreton â played against them and I remember thinking âI wouldnât mind playing for that gaffer one dayâ.â
And Jones, who hasnât previously played in the Football League, admitted the transfer has helped him achieve a personal goal.
âI knew straight away that I wanted to come to this club. Just everything about the club, itâs a big Football League club, and itâs been my aim for the last two years to get back into League football.â
But the Barnsley-born midfielder, who will be moving back to Doncaster where he was brought up, admitted he thought the deal had fallen through.
âGradually as January kept on going I realised âOkay, this could happen,â until a couple of days ago when I thought it wasnât going to happen and then obviously it happened and I was happy about that.
âI thought it wasnât going to happen but Iâm glad it has. Iâm here now so looking forward to it.â
There will be a familiar face here at Town for the midfielder as he played alongside Mariners centre-back Dan Jones when the defender joined Gateshead on loan earlier this season.
The midfielder said: âHeâs a funny old lad. Heâs a good lad and Iâm looking forward to seeing him.â
Jones was at Leeds United from the age of 15 until 18, including a two-year scholarship, but after missing out on a pro contract at the Whites, he left football out for a while and travelled around the east coast of Australia.
But he missed the game too much and came back to England to play at a âlow levelâ for a bit of extra money. After spells with two clubs at that level, he moved to Alfreton at the beginning of the 2015-16 campaign, where scored 13 goals in 36 appearances.
He signed for Gateshead last summer and scored nine league goals in 18 starts for the Heed, before penning a two-and-a-half year deal for the Mariners on Deadline Day.
Jones could make his Mariners debut this Saturday (3pm) as Bignotâs side welcome fifth-placed Luton Town to Blundell Park.