STEVEN THOMPSON is in a good place.

A few months shy of his 35th birthday, the striker looks ahead to his third season with St Mirren with all the boyish enthusiasm of a player half his age.

The first two years could hardly have gone better. It is not uncommon for a player to indulge their romantic side by electing to end their career with their childhood favourites but it rarely turns out as well as hoped for. Thompson, though, has been nothing short of a roaring success. Not a prolific scorer earlier in his career, the one-time Dundee United and Rangers forward defied expectations by rattling in 16 goals in his first campaign and then the same again a year later.

The tale of Thompson's second season, in fact, could have been penned by Hans Christian Andersen, the hometown hero scoring in the semi-final and then the final as St Mirren lifted the Co-operative Insurance Cup, their first major trophy in 26 years. A last-minute, overhead-kick winner in a 5-4 win over Ross County further confirmed that this was no ordinary story.

Off the field, Thompson has been a huge PR success for St Mirren, feted as a hero by supporters and just as complimentary about them in return. When he was approached by a fan at an end-of-season awards dinner a few months back and asked to sign a sticker of himself, the striker duly obliged. He then, unprompted, took the rest of the bundle, handed them out to the other players, watched over them as they scribbled their autographs, then took all them back to a very grateful supporter. It was a small gesture but one that further added to the warm relationship growing between player and fanbase.

It is hard to see how Thompson can better what he has achieved in his first two seasons but he is willing to give it a bash regardless. He has signed a contract for next season with an option to play for a year beyond that and fully intends to see it out. He has returned for pre-season training – following a short summer break in which he also gained his 'A' coaching licence – looking and feeling as fit as he has done at any point in his career.

"I'm feeling good," he told Herald Sport. "I kept myself going over the summer by running almost every day. When you're a young boy you can afford to shut down and do nothing for three or four weeks. But at my age if you shut down you might not start up again. You have to keep the engine going."

St Mirren have leant heavily on Thompson for goals during his two seasons in Paisley and it will likely be the same again this term. Manager Danny Lennon's summer clear-out has left only 18-year-old Thomas Reilly as back-up in attack, placing further pressure on the experienced forward both to stay fit and keep scoring regularly. The player, though, is thriving under that expectation.

"Probably in my career up until coming to St Mirren I had always played alongside someone else who was getting the goals. I was there as the target man and someone else was putting them away. So I'm quite happy to take on that responsibility [of scoring goals].

"It will be hard to better last season but I said that after the first year and look what happened. I scored 16 goals in the first season and my aim was to repeat that and I managed to do that. I just want to prove I can continue to maintain the levels I've shown in the past two seasons. That will be the test."

St Mirren have not recruited in vast numbers so far this summer but the arrival of Gary Harkins, in particular, has pleased Thompson. "I was a big admirer of his last year," he said. "I thought he was outstanding so I was delighted when we signed him. There were a few games last year that were quite even and we didn't have that wee extra ingredient to unlock defences. When a game's tied at 0-0 or 1-1 you look to someone to make that wee bit of a difference and Gary Harkins is one of those types of players."

Thompson is taking his coaching badges "just in case it's a path I end up going down" but insists retirement is not imminent. "I don't feel any different now to how I felt five years ago. When I first came back to Scotland two years ago people asked whether I could still cut it aged 33. Now I'm coming up for 35 but my aims are just the same. I think I've got another couple of seasons left in me anyway."