MORTON’S latest new signing Connor Bell today revealed how a chat with former Cappielow striker John Baird helped him decide moving to Greenock was the right decision for him.

Baird spent the second half of last season on loan at Ton after being Bell’s strike partner up at Inverness Caley Thistle for the first half of the campaign.

After Bell met with the club and spoke to manager Ray McKinnon the 22-year-old striker, who yesterday penned a one-year deal, knew the move was the right one to make.

He told the Tele: “I spoke to the manager and he spoke well, I also spoke to John Baird, who had a spell here last year and he was my strike partner for six months before he came here.

“He only had good things to say about the place and it’s always nice hearing it from someone else, you obviously go in somewhere with an open mind but it was good to get reassurances from someone you’re close to, as I got on well with Bairdy.

“It will be a really competitive league with Ross County and Partick coming down, and the teams who have come up look really strong as well.

“I think it will be a really competitive league and there will be lots of eyes on it.”

After signing yesterday morning, Bell went straight into training with the rest of the squad.

The Durham-native is keen to impress this season after turning down several offers from abroad and the UK.

He added: “It was an important career move with the age I’m at. “It’s been a long and stressful summer.

“I had a few options but after it started dragging on a bit I needed to make a decision.

“I just turned 22 last week so I felt it was a big career move for myself.”

Bell has had previous stints at Wrexham after training with Sunderland as a youth player, spending a brief spell on loan at Rhyl.

He then joined Swiss team Servette’s under-21 side as he looked to overcome his knee injury after having two operations on it in quick succession, and then moved to the Highlands last year with Caley Thistle.

The striker scored seven times in his first 22 appearances, but Bell’s form tailed off after the Christmas period, as he was used sparingly as a substitute towards the end of the season and failed to score after January.

He was offered a deal by Inverness manager John Robertson at the end of the campaign, but decided moving on was the best decision.

He said: “I dropped off after Christmas after picking up a few niggly injuries and something personal that happened after Christmas, so it was hard to recover from that.

“But overall it was good, I enjoyed my time up in the Highlands and it was good to get as many games as I did.

“We had a late push for the play-offs so it was a great experience to be a part of that and winning the Challenge Cup as well.

“I won my first trophy in professional football. “But now I want to play as many games at Morton as I can, and I want to improve my goal tally.”