Alfie Mawson said he wants to stay with Wanderers until the end of the season.

The central defender's loan period from Brentford expires on January 3 and the fact the Bees have banned him from playing in the FA Cup hints they want him to go and play elsewhere once the deal runs out.

But after scoring his first goal in professional football on Saturday, Mawson said he's loving life at Adams Park and wants to keep learning his game with Blues.

The 20-year-old said: "I'll be more than happy to stay. I said I wanted to get a full 25 games under my belt this season - now I'm looking at wanting to get a full season.

"Whether that's here or somewhere else I don't know, but I love it here. We're top of the league and top for a reason - it's a great place to be at the moment.

"I'm absolutely loving it, I couldn't say a bad word about it."

Mawson is still playing his first few matches in professional football, having made his Football League debut on the opening day of the season after joining Wanderers two days previously.

He said: "It's brilliant to be able to finally get my foot in the door and impose what I'm about.

"I have my OK performances, my bad performances and my good performances and I take in everything I can from all of them.

"I have a lot of respect for the gaffer because he's thrown me in - he didn't have to, he could have gone for an older, more experienced centre half but he chose me. I'm trying to repay him and the fans."

Mawson said playing regular League Two football was better for his development than turning out for Brentford's youth team.

He had his toughest examination so far on Saturday as he came up against former Premier League player Marlon Harewood, but it was a test he passed as Wanderers beat Hartlepool 3-1.

Mawson netted the third goal to finally break his duck, having been a regular scorer for the Bees' U21s.

He said: "It's my 20th game so it's been a long time coming.

"In the first half when I hit the post I thought maybe it's going to be one of those where I'm not going to get one, so I'm very happy to get off the mark.

"At Brentford I was alright, I scored quite a few, but this is a different ball game because there's different marking. It's more zonal when you're in the youngsters; here you're getting matched up. Today I was against big Marlon Harewood, it's totally different.

"It's better because I'm learning from that, learning how to defend and when to attack. Because I'm playing against bigger men who've been in the game, they have smarter movement. I'm benefitting from it.

"I aspire to play at the highest level I can. Playing against players who've played at that level and see if I can deal with it, where I've got to improve to get there, it all helps me."

He added: "It was a hard first 15 minutes. We started a bit sloppily, they started like a team who wanted to win. We weathered the storm well and when we scored we tried to slow it down and impose our pace on the game."