New Crawley signing Richard Hodgson today insisted: "I'm here to stay."

The midfielder joined Reds for the second time last week after returning from a spell playing in Malaysia.

The 25-year-old first signed last October from Stevenage but left just 48 hours later without playing a game to join Cambridge United.

The former Nottingham Forest, Scunthorpe and Darlington professional had a clause in his contract allowing him to leave for free if a League club made an offer.

Reds manager Francis Vines tried to sign the Sunderland-born playmaker again in January when he was released by Cambridge but he opted to move to Malaysian Super League side Pahang.

Hodgson regrets the way he treated Crawley and insists he is now fully committed to the club.

He said: "I am really looking forward to playing for them after what happened last time. I felt bad for Francis and the club and had every intention of staying but I just could not turn down the offer from Cambridge.

"I had a house with my partner near Cambridge and I would have been commuting for two and a half hours on a good day to Crawley.

"I was willing to do that but then Cambridge came in and I had the chance to not only play full-time football but also to do it 20 minutes from my house.

"It was nothing against Crawley at all, it was just the logistics. I would have been travelling for five hours a day and there were things like the money I would need to pay for petrol to take into account.

"This time I am selling my house and moving down to the Crawley area to show I am here to stay.

"There are also no clauses in my contract. I am not looking for a quick fix and I'm not just coming here for a couple of months, I want to have a career with Crawley."

He added: "Obviously my ambition is to get back to playing full-time football, like everyone else, but I don't see why I can't do that with Crawley.

"They are an ambitious club and want to go full-time in the future. They train three times a week which is not far off being full-time anyway.

"They have a good foundation at the club and want to develop, so there is no reason I can't be playing League football with them in the future."

Hodgson says the move to Reds has reignited his appetite for the game after a spell in the doldrums when he was released by Cambridge.

He made 11 appearances for the Abbey Stadium club, scoring two goals, but was shown the door when new manager Steve Thompson took over from Frenchman Herve Renard.

Hodgson said: "Things went really well for me when I first went to Cambridge. The French manager Renard was there, he liked me and liked to play football. Although we weren't getting results, we were knocking the ball around and playing some good stuff. That all changed when the new manager came in.

"The first game he took charge of, I scored and was voted the player of the month. After the game he came up to me and said it would be the last time I played under him.

"He said he didn't want footballers at the club and got rid of everyone who liked to play. He wanted players who were going to hit it into the corners and just get stuck in.

"I was gobsmacked. I went from being on a real high to being thrown out of the club. I think he was probably looking for an excuse to get rid of me because I was only one game away from having my contract extended. It would have meant another year and more wages.

"It was really disappointing and I became disenchanted with football. I just couldn't be bothered anymore, so when the Malaysian move came up I thought 'why not?'

"It didn't really work out there because the culture was so different but it gave me the desire to play over here again.

"Now I can't wait for the new season with Crawley. They did really well last season, before tailing off at the end, and hopefully we can do even better.