JAMIE Devitt is hoping to relaunch is career at Valley Parade after 18 months of personal frustration.

The former Bantam returns to his old club this weekend looking to make his Barrow debut after signing on loan from Blackpool.

The Irishman is desperate to get going again after a season and a half when “everything that could go wrong did go wrong.”

That included a second stint with City where a serious hamstring injury restricted him to just six games – and one of those saw him sent off against Cheltenham.

Another temporary move to high-flying Newport this season saw him start only once in the league because of the impressive form of Swindon loanee Scott Twine – and a bout of Covid.

“I can’t wait to get back on the pitch and to try and contribute,” he told our sister paper, the Carlisle News & Star. “It’s been really tough.

“I signed for Blackpool and then within five days, the manager (Terry McPhillips)] had left.

“I missed the first day of the pre-season trip because my little baby was born, and then when I went up, I don’t think the new manager (Simon Grayson) really knew who I was.

“After a day or two I thought, ‘He doesn’t want me at the club and I’ve just signed. What happens now?’

“Then I went to Bradford with Gary Bowyer. He was brilliant, but then I got the bad injury which put me out for a long while.

“I came back, played a couple of games behind closed doors, the manager left and a new manager came in…and then all of a sudden it was Covid.”

Former City team-mate Michael Flynn took Devitt to south Wales the week before they won 3-0 at Valley Parade in October but opportunities remained limited.

Devitt said: “I signed on loan and went to the hotel to do a Covid test, which you had to do before they let you into the club - and it turned out positive. It summed up my luck.

“That evening I ordered some food and couldn’t smell or taste it. That was that.

“The first few days after coming back I got fatigued a bit quicker, but luckily I wasn’t too affected with it.

“You see with some lads it's hit them really hard. It’s horrible, to be honest with you.

“You’re gonna get setbacks in the game – it’s how you deal with them. It was blow after blow but I’ve got a good family behind me and my wife was there all the way.

“She had to come down to London when I had my (hamstring) operation. The baby was only a couple months born.

“She was going around London with the baby and my little boy who was seven staying in a hotel around the corner from where I was having the operation.”

Now Devitt is trying to put all the trials and tribulations behind him as part of Michael Jolley’s January rebuild at Barrow.

“Everything he said was what I want, in terms of ambition,” added Devitt. “It was a no-brainer once we had a good chat.

“He named three or four of the lads he wanted to bring in, and they’re in the building already. I hope we can repay him by getting the results and moving up the table quickly.”