MOTHERWELL striker Lee Erwin is out to net his side Premiership safety - and score a new contract in the process.

Brought up on the outskirts of Lanarkshire in Holytown, the 21-year-old has come of age in his first full campaign for the Steelmen with a host of impressive performances both leading the line and out on the flank.

In particular, the former Scotland Under-21 forward has shown recent flashes of how deadly a finisher he can be by banging in three goals in his last three games.

Like the majority of the Motherwell squad, Erwin finds himself out of contract this summer.

And the man who slotted home eight strikes in 11 appearances while on loan at Arbroath last season, told SportTimes he is desperate to prove he is worth another deal.

"My contract is up at the end of May," said Erwin. "I'm now just trying to play as many games as I can and help the team out with my performances. I want to make sure Motherwell stay in the Premiership and take it from there.

"In my opinion, this is the right place for me to be, definitely. I'm a local lad and live just five minutes from Fir Park. I have been here for nine years and it's been good for me.

"I've grown up watching the first team and it feels like a family here to me. Stuart Carswell and I have come up through the ranks together since the Under 14s, which helped us settle in."

While the last campaign has been one most Motherwell fans will be hoping to forget and put down as uneventful and not disastrous, it will always be a year Erwin will remember as the one where he broke into the Fir Park first team.

"This season has been good and bad," he explained. "The league position obviously hasn't been great given how successful the club has been in recent years with top-two finishes and getting into Europe. But it's good that I've now got my foot in the door whereas in previous years I was either injured, on loan or a mile away from the first team."

Keen to impress, Erwin is happy to oblige in any task boss Ian Baraclough gives him. Despite being in the mould of a typical No.9 centre-forward, the Lanarkshire lad has often been deployed out on the left flank this season, including in Well's last game which saw them go down 2-0 at Partick Thistle.

It is not his preferred position, but the makeshift wide man is happy to do his bit.

He said: "It's not difficult for me to adjust playing out wide, I don't care where I play on the park as long as I'm on it in the starting eleven.

"I used to always play up front or sometimes just off the front, but this season I've been getting a wee run out at left midfield and I've been enjoying it."

Avoiding the relegation play-off place is something that will top off a memorable season for the rookie.

Motherwell go to New Douglas Park tomorrow night aiming to win the first of five games on the bounce to guarantee them safety.

"If you look back at the last three or four results, we'll be able to pick ourselves back up," said Erwin.

"The Thistle defeat was a sore one to take, especially given that things had been going reason-ably up until then.

"It was really disappointing as we should have got three points. But it's about shrugging that off and picking up points again like we know we can."