Owen Garvan has revealed a phone call to manager Tony Humes paved the way for his Colchester United switch.

Garvan, who has joined the U’s on a short-term deal until January, had been without a club since leaving Premier League side Crystal Palace at the end of last season.

The 27-year-old former Ipswich Town midfielder knew U’s boss Humes and assistant manager Richard Hall from their time together at Ipswich Town.

And former Republic of Ireland under-21 international Garvan said contacting Humes led to him landing a deal at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.

Garvan said: “It’s all happened very quickly.

“I’ve been training with Southend and Motherwell for a bit but I decided to give Tony a ring and told him I really wanted to come here and prove myself.

“I’ve been out of the spotlight for nearly two years and want to get back to playing football.

“I want to be back on Sky Sports News seeing the name ‘Garvan’ as a goalscorer.

“That’s all I’m concerned about and helping Colchester get wins.

“I’ve come here to get a bit of game time and show people what I can do – I didn’t want to stay in Dublin moping around.

“I don’t know too much and haven’t seen too much of (Colchester’s) games but I know the manager and his staff and I know they’re very professional.

“There’s a lot of young lads here and I know the manager was keen to bring in a bit more experience, to help them through.

“Hopefully I can do that – I’m only 27 and have never really thought of myself as an older player.

“But coming in for training this morning, there’s a lot of fresh faces and hopefully it’s a role I’ll get used to.”

Garvan admits he has felt like a “forgotten man” at Palace, having initially moved to Selhurst Park from Ipswich for £250,000, five years ago.

He made 87 appearances for the Eagles but fell out of favour at the south London club, with a knee injury playing its part in restricting him to just four first-team appearances for them in the last two seasons.

“I wasn’t being recognised or considered to play, which was frustrating for me because I know what I can do,” added Garvan, who has made two appearances for the U's since joining them last week.

“It’s unfortunate I had the injury. The 25-man squad kills a lot of players because we had 45 professionals and a lot weren’t going to play.”