Ross County keep Martin Woods until the end of the season

Ross County are the first Scottish team Bellshill-born Woods has played for

Ross County have signed Martin Woods on a short-term deal to keep him at the club until the end of the season.

The 29-year-old midfielder joined the Staggies in October until the end of January and will now stay there to help the team in their relegation fight.

However, County manager Jim McIntyre has revealed it is hard to attract players in the January transfer window.

"January is a tough window. It is a challenge to get them to move to the North of Scotland," he said.

"Obviously players do their homework and see you are bottom of the league.

"It's about making sure they're up for the challenge ahead. If a player is humming and hawing about that, they're no use to you."

McIntyre, who is assessing Ibra Sekajja, who left Inverness Caledonian Thistle after failing to make a start for John Hughes' side, continued: "It's so important that you bring the right types (of player) to your club.

"That's not just about what they do on a Saturday. It's about the way they conduct themselves, how they train, and what they bring to the dressing room.

"We're in negotiations with a few of the players here to extend their stay and that's ongoing."

Ibra Sekajja is training with Ross County after leaving local rivals Inverness CT

McIntyre was appointed in September and concedes it is a fine balance trying to reshape the squad during his first window in charge, and achieve positive results on the pitch.

He told BBC Scotland: "It's important that you don't take your eye off what's the most important thing, which is to get a result on a Saturday."

County remain bottom of the Scottish Premiership on goal difference. Despite that, midfielder Jackson Irvine insists the squad are in confident mood ahead of the visit of Partick Thistle.

"This is really important game for us after picking up such a positive result (1-1 away to Dundee) having 10 men for essentially the whole game.

"The boys are feeling really confident that we can pick ourselves up a win."

Partick Thistle currently sit 10 points ahead of bottom-placed County and Irvine acknowledged defeat may create an insurmountable gap between the sides.

"These games essentially become six-pointers, these ones against the teams that are around you," he said.

"They'll be looking to put a gap between themselves and the bottom three.

"If we want to have any chance of getting out of this we need to draw these teams back towards us."