HIGHLY-RATED striker Jon Stead has pledged his immediate future to Town.

The 20-year-old frontman has bagged four goals in as many games this season and his name has been noted by all the top clubs from Manchester United down.

Stead, who went as close as anyone to scoring for Peter Jackson's side in Saturday's 1-0 defeat by York City, says he is flattered by the interest but nothing more.

"It's encouraging when people say nice things about the way you are playing, but I'm here for now and I want to do well for Town," said the Academy product who still has two years on his McAlpine contract.

"I try to ignore all the talk and just do as well as I can for the team, because that's the main thing at the moment."

Scouts from Blackburn, Aston Villa, Tottenham and Newcastle were among those to watch Stead on Saturday.

West Ham United were also represented, along with Scottish giants Celtic.

"I'm not really interested in what people are saying and what's supposed to be happening, I'm just doing what I can on the pitch," added Stead.

Saturday's first defeat of the season - watched by a crowd of 9,850 in which there were pockets of trouble - was the first in which Stead has failed to find the net and he was aiming to put that right at Doncaster today (3.00).

"There didn't seem to be the confidence there on Saturday and I'm not really sure why that was," he said. "It was far from what we know we can play like and far from what the fans know we can play like, so it was very disappointing.

"Normally it is us who close the opposition down and cause them problems but, on Saturday, it was York who were doing that to us.

"I don't think they were a good footballing side, so I suppose you could say they won because they appeared to want it more than us, and that's hard for me to take personally and for the lads to take as a team.

"We do feel like we let everyone down, ourselves included, but we've just got to put it behind us and bounce back as quickly as we can."

On his scoring run, Stead added: "It would have been nice to keep it going, although a goal a game is a lot to ask of anyone over a period of time.

"If I'd been missing clear-cut chances then I'd be unhappy, but that's not the case and we had only half chances on Saturday."

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