BLACKBURN Rovers striker Sam Gallagher admits he has one eye on a Premier League future after making a super start to his Ewood Park career.

Gallagher, who is on a season long loan from Southampton, has found the net seven times already this season and put in another strong performance in the weekend win over Brentford.

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The 21-year-old has impressed his manager and fans alike with his early season performances and some Saints supporters have been calling for him to return to St Mary’s.

While that looks unlikely, Gallagher is determined to carry on his goalscoring form both to fire Rovers up the table, and impress his parent club.

He said: “For me, as well as I want to do with Blackburn, the end goal for me is to do well enough to be in the picture at Southampton.

“I still keep in contact with the club and they watch the games when they can and give their response to how I am doing and what I can do more of.

“The big challenge that comes with the Championship is trying to score regular goals.”

Rovers boss Owen Coyle has already expressed his admiration for Gallagher, insisting he would love to turn his temporary stay into a permanent deal, but with the former Plymouth Argyle youth player under contract at St Mary’s until 2018, and having plenty of admirers on the south coast, his immediate future appears to be with Southampton.

Gallagher suffered a testing loan spell with MK Dons in the Championship last season where he failed to score in 15 appearances, but he has hit the ground running at Rovers - something he puts down to a fast start in front of goal.

The former England youth international, who was playing Under-23 football in the second of last season for Southampton, opened his account for the campaign in his first start in the draw against Burton and has not looked back, with four goals in his last five games ahead of this weekend’s trip to league leaders Newcastle United.

“I had a good start and that definitely helps, getting that first goal out of the way builds a bit of confidence,” the young striker added.

“I feel like the crowd is always behind me and that definitely helps.

“Under-23s and men’s football is a big difference, it took a bit of an adjustment for me last year but now I definitely don’t feel like a boy playing men’s football. It has been a good season so far.”