Ronan Hale joined St Pat's for a new lease of life after fearing he was "rotting away" out of the picture at Crusaders.
The former Derry City attacking ace went home to Belfast in January when he joined the NIFL Premiership club on a two and a half year deal.
But Hale found himself out of favour at Seaview and, despite the presence there of his brother, Rory, he joined the Saints at the start of this month on a free transfer.
"There was no falling out or anything," said the ex-Birmingham City starlet. "It was just that I wasn't getting the game time that I would've liked.
"Everyone could see that I just wasn't being myself. I just wanted to play football, which any lad does.
"It was a different style of play and a different type of formation, and I just didn't really fit in at the time.
"And I just didn't want to keep rotting away - I wanted to get back playing as soon as I could.
"It was a very, very hard decision to leave because I had just moved home and was with my family for a while. So it was a big decision to leave them again.
"But sacrifices had to made to just get back to enjoying it again, and try to make a living."
Eager to make his mark quickly with the Saints, Hale couldn't have asked for a better start - coming off the bench at Turner's Cross to score a superb injury time winner against Cork City.
"Actually you couldn't have," he smiled. "Getting the goal and the three points was brilliant.
"I saw things on social media and all with the fans talking about me, so I'm delighted. I'm enjoying it, I've just been getting back into the swing of things.
"I really enjoyed my time with Derry last year. I knew the league was of a very high standard, and it suited me to go to St Pat's, having played against them last year.
"I like to get on the ball, create chances and score goals and playing with players of high quality, I think I'll improve as a player."
He had participated in Crusaders' pre-season training but admits to still working to rid himself of rustiness from not playing competitive games.
Having started the FAI Cup win over Bray last week, he's hungry for more game time.
"There's a couple of massive games this weekend, if we win and both Bohs and Derry drop points, there's three points in it," he remarked.
"We'll just focus in on getting that European spot. It's possible".
Hale turns 21 next month and is hoping to break into Stephen Kenny's Ireland under-21 plans, having played at that level last year and scored a couple of goals.
"When the time's ready, hopefully I'll get back in the squad," he said. "I haven't spoken to Stephen. I'll just wait and see what happens".
