JAMES Henry has indicated he is keen to stay at Oxford United ahead of talks over a new contract.

The midfielder has been a key figure since joining in 2017, but his deal expires next summer.

Last week head coach Karl Robinson revealed negotiations over fresh terms were due to start in the next few weeks.

In the meantime Henry has not done his cause any harm, earning nominations for player of the month from Sky Bet League One and the PFA.

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While he did not win either, finishing joint second in the public vote for the latter award, the 30-year-old goes into the talks in a strong position.

“I just want to keep performing well and those sorts of things will take care of themselves,” he said.

“I’ve enjoyed my time here and hopefully something will be sorted.

“Those talks have sort of started, but I think they’ve been waiting for (head of recruitment) Mark Thomas to get back from holiday.”

Henry has thrived at United and made his 100th start for the club last weekend.

In that context, his 32 goals is an impressive haul and have come at a faster rate than at any other time in his career.

He said: “I’m probably fitter than I have ever been in the last two seasons.

“I’m just enjoying my football. I seem to be getting into a lot better goalscoring positions.

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“When I went into a central role it helped, I was arriving in the box and was getting a lot of goals like that last year.

“This year I’m on the right but tucked in, so I’m still getting into those positions.

“Hopefully it can continue, because I do enjoy scoring.”

Henry was United’s undisputed top scorer last season, but has company this time around ahead of tomorrow’s home game with Doncaster Rovers.

Cameron Brannagan and Tariqe Fosu have also netted half a dozen goals so far and it is a welcome development.

He said: “It’s good, we need that because you can’t rely on one person to score all the goals.

“You need to spread it across the team and hopefully we can get our centre backs scoring a bit more from set pieces.”

Converting from corners in particular have been an issue this season.

And United’s failure to cash in from those situations has left Henry scratching his head.

He said: “In the three seasons since I’ve been here we probably haven’t scored enough.

“I don’t know what the answer is – the delivery is pretty good, I think we’re attacking the ball well.

“We work on it a lot so there’s no excuses from us.”