Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale will be pleased to welcome David Noble back into the centre of midfield for Saturday's match with Northampton Town.
The midfielder has signed a permanent deal at St James's Park having been released by Oldham Atheltic.
Noble was already on loan from Oldham but has missed the last four games as his emergency deal ran out prior to the trip to Stevenage on December 20.
City lost that match and two of the other three games Noble was missing for over the festive period, and Tisdale does not put that down to coincidence.
Noble was also missing for City's first six games of the season when they failed to pick up a victory.
"I'm not saying it is that black and white, but he is obviously a crucial part of our team and it will be very good to get him involved with us again," said Tisdale. "He has been made a permanent signing so he is now our player.
"We just failed to get that deal through in time for last Saturday, but he will go back into the team for this Saturday and give us a real vital player in the middle of the pitch."
Tying Noble down has been one of a number of deals Tisdale has been working on.
Alex Nicholls signed on Tuesday, while a deal to make Ryan Harley's loan move permanent is imminent. Talks are still on-going with Clinton Morrison.
Harley is likely to line-up with Noble in the centre of midfield this weekend.
Tisdale sees Harley as a replacement for teenage star Matt Grimes – who joined Swansea City for £1.75m on Friday – having brought him back for his second spell at the club on loan from Swindon Town.
Tisdale said that despite the dip in results over Christmas, it was important for him not to change too much during the January transfer window, so getting the players already at the club onto permanent deals was his priority.
"I think at the moment, although we have had a bit of a dip in results the past fortnight, I don't really want to change too much," he said.
"My priority going into this period, January and the second half of the season, is to maintain the form we have had up until now.
"I will add to the squad if I think there is someone who is particularly suitable, but my priority is to not lose or upset or start to disassemble what we have already got, be it Ryan Harley, Alex Nicholls, Clinton Morrison or David Noble.
"Those are the four players who have all got contractual bits and pieces that needed to be secured."
Tisdale admitted after Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Accrington Stanley that his side have lost their rhythm – prior to the Stevenage defeat the Grecians had gone nine games unbeaten in the league.
However, the City manager has a few ideas of how he can get his side back onto a winning pattern.
"The rhythm can go and then come back and sometimes you don't even know why, but I have a feel for it," said Tisdale.
"I have got one or two ideas of what we need to work on and talk about. We have had some forced changes in midfield and we have played one or two games on the road that I actually think we could have won, but we ended up losing.
"I don't think there is too much wrong. Sometimes you get these spells and I'm disappointed we haven't got more points, but we just have to re-start some of our play and concentrate on what we need to do."
