NEW Morton signing Ross Doohan says he’s excited at the prospect of challenging first-choice stopper Derek Gaston for his No.1 jersey after joining on loan from Celtic.

Doohan put pen to paper on a development loan on Thursday afternoon which will keep him in Greenock until January 4 2018. 

And the 19-year-old immediately targeted Gaston’s spot for a bit of healthy competition.

He told the Tele: “I’m happy with the deal, I really wanted to go out on loan to experience first team football.

“I heard a bit about potentially making the move a few weeks ago so I just wanted to get it sorted. Thankfully we did that quite quickly.

“Thursday was my first day and Derek Gaston came in to introduce himself. He’s a nice guy so I’m looking forward to having that competition with him.

“I think there’s nothing wrong with healthy competition because it will always make you work harder. If you’re in there you’d want to continue working harder to keep that spot and the number one jersey.”

Doohan is the latest in a long line of Celtic loanees making the move from Parkhead and the goalkeeper says he picked the brains of a number of former Ton and Celtic stars to see what was in store for him on Sinclair Street.

He said: “I spoke to Nizzy [Aidan Nesbitt] about the move and he gave really good praise of Morton and gave the boys good praise. He praised the manager as well because he has a lot of respect for him so that helped with my decision.

“I also spoke to Connor McManus before everything was finalised and he reiterated what Nizzy and Jamie Lindsay spoke about. That it’ll be with a good bunch of boys to work with. That helped everything.

“It will be good to experience a first team dressing room for me, as a young player, to play with older players as well. 

“That will hopefully make me more mature as a player and more experienced.”

Celtic’s under-20s outfit play their home games at Cappielow in the Development League, so Doohan will be in familiar territory every second Saturday.

And the Scotland Under-19 shot-stopper reckons that can have a positive effect on his time at Morton.

He added: “I think it helps a lot that I’m familiar with the background because I’ve played a lot of games at Cappielow with the Celtic 20s. 

“Hopefully that can make the transition a wee bit easier going from the 20s to Morton’s first team because I’m familiar with the surroundings.”