YOUNGSTER Matt Butcher targeted further improvement after penning a new two-and-a-half year contract at Cherries.

The 18-year-old midfielder, who signed his first professional deal in April, is due to remain at the Vitality Stadium until at least the summer of 2018.

Academy graduate Butcher has been training with Eddie Howe’s first-team squad and is hopeful of impressing the boss further.

Butcher said: “It’s been an amazing start to the season. I feel I have progressed a lot and, hopefully, with this security I can try and get as close to the first team as possible.

“The coaching staff have given me great confidence and I have a good marker to build from and keep improving.

“I used to take it year-by-year in the academy. The next step was the scholarship and, before I knew it, I’d got that.

“In that period, I didn’t really know where I was going to be but now I have secured my future for the next couple of years and I can focus on football.”

Butcher made his first-team debut in Cherries’ League Cup second-round win at Hartlepool in August and was an unused substitute at Preston in the same competition.

He gained experience at Gosport Borough last season and subsequently made seven starts and two substitute appearances during Poole Town’s Southern Premier promotion run-in.

Butcher was speaking to the club website.