I'm just happy to repay Blackburn boss Hughes's faith in me, says 21-goal Santa Cruz

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A steal at £3.3million from Bayern Munich, Santa Cruz could claim to be all square with his manager having taken his tally of goals to 21 for the season by earning Blackburn all three points against Portsmouth on Sunday.

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Match winner: Santa Cruz (centre) celebrates with Pedersen (left) and Warnock after his goal against Portsmouth

But despite reports linking Santa Cruz with a £10million summer move to Manchester United, the Paraguayan striker has moved to ease any fears that his stay at Ewood Park is set to be a fleeting one.

Revelling in the regular action that was denied him at Bayern, Santa Cruz insisted: "For any footballer you can see the way they feel by the way they play. You can tell the happiness they feel outside the club.

"I think you can see that with me, it shows in the way I play. There is no real need to change. I have my goals in life and my career but for the time I just want to enjoy these moments.

"Yes I want to win more titles and play in Europe and do this and that, but it is step by step and this is a big step in my career to do well here now. I just need to concentrate on that.

"I also feel that I owe Mark Hughes something. I haven't had many bad moments in this year but I do feel that the manager has plenty of confidence in me and that is a very hard thing to find wherever you go.

"I'm not the kind of person who is always thinking about the things you choose life. I just go with the things that happen. I can look behind and know I made the right choice to come here and it is a good place to be. The important thing for me is I'm very happy in Blackburn and my family is also very happy."

Santa Cruz has not given up hope of firing Blackburn into Intertoto Cup, even if his impressive goals haul has come as something of a surprise even to himself.

He added: "It's better than I expected. I was thinking that 12 or 15 goals would be fantastic. Because I have got so many goals I am enjoying the games more. Once you start scoring the confidence comes, but also the team has been making enough chances.

"I'm very happy because the team is also fighting and not complaining that this is a long season, everybody is still hoping we qualify (for the Intertoto) and it's very nice to have the feeling that with two games to go we have the possibility of fighting for something."