JONATHAN Stead last night insisted he's ready to rediscover the scoring touch that made him an instant hero with Blackburn Rovers fans a year ago.

The England Under 21 international finally ended his 10-month search for a goal when he pounced to score the winner in Rovers' 1-0 victory at Everton yesterday.

That was Stead's first Premier League goal since May 1 last year, when Blackburn beat Manchester United at Ewood, and now the 21-year-old forward is ready to put the most traumatic period of his career firmly behind him as he channels all his energy into regaining a place in Mark Hughes' first team.

"There's no point looking back at the season I've had, I've got to look forward and look at the season I could be having from now until the end," said Stead, philosophically.

"There have been times when I've been thinking 'is this the right thing to do?' when I've not been scoring, and 'was I a flash in the pan last season?'

"But you've just got to try and keep your confidence. I've kept belief in my own ability.

"It has been difficult and it's taken far too long for me to score, but I've done it now and let's hope I can add to that."

Stead sealed all three points for Rovers when he latched onto Steven Reid's perfectly-weighted through ball and guided a right-footed shot beyond Nigel Martyn in the 71st minute of yesterday's game at Goodison.

It was the striker's first goal in 20 Premiership appearances this season and Stead was later at a loss to explain why it had taken so long to arrive.

"I don't know why I've struggled this season," said Stead, who bagged six goals in 13 appearances last term to save Rovers from relegation.

"I've not done anything differently; I've not trained differently, and I've not prepared for matches differently.

"Sometimes you just don't get the rub of the green. You can't blame it all on luck and there's no real explanation for it.

"At the end of the day, I'm there to score goals and I'm there to produce for the team so it's been me that's not been doing the right thing, whatever that has been."

Although Stead never lost all belief in himself, he admitted there were times when his lack of form left him feeling low.

"It has been terrible," said the former Huddersfield man.

"No striker wants to go through a period where they're not scoring but my period has been a little bit longer than most.

"You've just got to keep working hard. I'm only 21 and there's going to be plenty more times in my career when I won't score for a while.

"Up to a couple of weeks ago, I was considering going out on loan just to get some football because I was turning up on matchdays and finding myself sitting in the stand, which is not something any footballer wants to do.

"But to be fair to the staff, they wanted me to stay here and if the manager won't let you go out on loan then you've got to take some confidence from that."

After being axed from the squad completely for the recent games against Chelsea, Middlesbrough, Norwich and Burnley, Stead wasn't even expecting to be named in the 16 on duty yesterday.

However, Hughes recalled him to the bench in place of the injured Jay Bothroyd and then threw him on up front in the 15th minute after Paul Dickov suffered a knock that meant he couldn't continue.

"The manager was brave in sticking me on," said Stead.

"He could have put Gally in but he stuck me on instead in a lone role up front, which is difficult for any striker, and I repaid his confidence.

"I can't really remember much about the goal. It was a great through ball, I turned and found some confidence from somewhere to strike it like I normally can do and it went into the far corner, so I was delighted.

"This is massive for me and my family. Most of them were at home watching the game on television because they didn't want to make the trip in case I was sat in the stand with them, so I'm sure there was some cheers in the household when it went in."

Now Stead hopes his match-winning performance will be enough to keep him in the side for the Leicester game on Sunday and beyond.

He added: "I'm definitely not going to sit back and let someone else take the shirt off me now.

"I've got to earn the right to play and I'll do that by scoring goals."