Port Vale defender John McCombe hoping to keep place

McCombe is hoping to earn a new contract at Port Vale in June

Port Vale defender John McCombe is hopeful that he has done enough to keep his place in the starting line-up for Saturday's home game against Barnet.

With Gareth Owen injured, the 24-year-old made his first start since 12 December in the 2-1 win at Torquay.

"It was good to be back," McCombe told BBC Radio Stoke. "I hadn't started a league game for a number of weeks.

"I enjoyed it. I thought I did quite well and hopefully I'll stay in the team for the weekend."

Owen has trained this week and is expected to be fit for the visit of the Bees.

Goals from Lewis Haldane and Marc Richards gave a below-par Vale all three points at Plainmoor on Saturday, their first win in three games.

"There's 46 games in a season and you're not going to play well every week," said McCombe. "That's the sign of a good team, getting wins when they're not playing well.

"The gaffer [Micky Adams] said before the Torquay game that we needed 12 wins from the last 18 matches, and we've got one of them already.

"Hopefully the next two games [at home against Barnet and Lincoln City] will put us on the way to another 11.

"We can go on unbeaten runs, but hopefully there will be a few more wins in there. We need to be winning games and we'll be positive in every game that we play now."