KENNY McLEAN has given the first hint he is ready to commit his future to St Mirren.

The 21-year-old is in the final year of his current Buddies contract and was linked with a move to English Championship side Ipswich Town during the summer.

With the midfielder having scored three goals in his last four games, while turning in a string of standout displays, interest in his signature is sure to be growing by the week.

But McLean has handed boss Danny Lennon a massive boost by revealing he is in no hurry to leave Paisley and that tentative start to talks aimed at keeping him at St Mirren Park have already started.

The Scotland Under-21 international said: "A new contract has been mentioned and hopefully talks will start soon.

"But I'd like to think I will sit down with the club sooner rather than later, although there is no real rush from my point of view.

"I'm loving my football with St Mirren and, at 21, in no hurry to go elsewhere. So hopefully I have years ahead of me at St Mirren Park."

The youngster's ability to play head-up football and thread a finely-weighted pass is clear to see. So is the power in his left peg.

Inconsistency has always been the uncomfortable companion of youth when it comes to football and a gauge of how far the midfielder has come will be provided by the longevity of his current hot streak.

But when it comes to Saints' form surge, which has taken them up to eighth place in the SPFL Premiership on the back of four wins from their last five games, McLean believes self-assurance has been the key.

He said: "So much of it is down to confidence.

"We had a well- documented spell at the start of the season when nothing was going right and we couldn't buy a win, but we stuck with it.

"We have some very strong characters in the dressing room and to be fair to the manager he stood up and took the flak and showed a bit of bottle himself.

"So we stuck together and we had enough quality in the dressing room to turn it all around.

"Now we have got to keep things going and to retain the levels we are playing at and, with them, the consistency.

"However, after the start we had to the season, to have won four from our last five has been a tremendous turnaround."