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Patrick Bamford has told Boro he wants to stay for the rest of the season and revealed his current scoring streak followed a summit meeting with Aitor Karanka.

The young Chelsea striker has scored five goals in the last six games after being given an extended run in the first team.

He has started seven of the last eight fixtures but, before that sequence, was named in the first XI in just three of the previous eight.

That fringe role led the 21-year-old to seek a chat with Boro’s head coach.

“I had a meeting with the gaffer and just said that I need to be playing more,” Bamford said.

“I played against Brentford and scored, but then I was in and out of the team.

“I only started two or three games and then I had a meeting with him when I came back after the international break after the Brighton game.

“I just said ‘I want to play, that’s why I have come here, I need to play, I can only show you what I can do if I am playing’, and he’s put his belief in me. I’ve played the games and proved him right, or proved myself right; that I can do it when I get a run of games together. I think that’s the important thing.”

That run of games has convinced Bamford his immediate future belongs on Teesside.

His current loan deal is set to lapse in January but he’s told Boro and his parent club he wants to stay until the end of the season.

“Things haven’t been tied up, the paperwork’s not been done,” he began. “But I think it was about just before the Blackburn game on the Friday, Eddie Newton (Chelsea’s development coach) came up, which they do every so often, every couple of months, just to check how everything is, and just to go over my games and welfare.

“Before he arrived I sat down with the gaffer (Karanka), looked through some of my (video) clips and told him that I wanted to stay until the end of the season, seeing how I am enjoying life here and to stay would make me happy, so I think they are on the case now pushing it towards Chelsea.

“It’s also come out that the gaffer at Chelsea, (Jose) Mourinho, is really happy with me being here as well. So I think it’s just finalising the details now, which shouldn’t be hard.”

Boro play Derby tomorrow, a club Bamford played for on loan last season.

The striker is looking forward to coming up against his old club and says he has no fears about playing the Championship leaders.

“I’m excited, if anything,” he said. “To me it’s another game where we can push towards the top of the table.

“It’s a fixture I look out for,” added Bamford, “It was a great team to play for; I can’t speak highly enough of the lads, the place and the staff, the whole club really. I really enjoyed my time there. It will be good to play against players I know really well.”