page_title: John McCombe
section_title: Port Vale
hierarchical_section_title: John McCombe / Career / Port Vale
caption_attribution_description: English: John McCombe close-up
context_page_description: John Paul McCombe is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre back for Northern Premier League Premier Division club Hyde United.
  McCombe graduated through the Huddersfield Town Academy to make his first-team debut in May 2003. Unused in 2003–04, he also rarely featured in 2004–05, 2005–06, and 2006–07. During this time he a brief periods on loan at Torquay United, though he never took to the field for them. He spent the 2007–08 season with Hereford United, helping the club to win promotion into League One. McCombe joined Port Vale in May 2008, and after establishing himself in the first team in 2008–09 and 2009–10, he managed to win the club's Player of the Year Award in 2011. He helped the club to secure promotion out of League Two in 2012–13.
  After leaving Port Vale in May 2013, McCombe signed for Mansfield Town on a free transfer. He left Mansfield for York City in January 2014, and stayed with York for two years. He joined Macclesfield Town in February 2016, and played in the club's defeat at the 2017 FA Trophy Final.
context_section_description: On 29 May 2008, McCombe agreed a two-year contract to join Port Vale. He claimed one of the reasons he put pen to paper was that having met manager Lee Sinnott 13 years previously, he knew that Sinnott could help improve his game. However, he established himself as a first-choice centre back under new manager Dean Glover, but was also told he was too 'nice' and needed to be more aggressive in his defending. Nevertheless, his performances 2008–09 earned him the chairman's Player of the Year award, as well as the nickname 'Boom Boom McCombe' from fans.
  Retaining his first-team place in 2009–10, he was transfer listed in late September 2009, along with the entire Port Vale squad, after manager Micky Adams saw his team slip to a third consecutive defeat. However, by the end of October 2009 he had played in the opening 18 matches of the season, picking up a goal on the way, and was confident of earning a new contract by the season's end. On 12 December 2009, he received the first sending off of his career, following a professional foul on Northampton Town's Adebayo Akinfenwa. This brought to an end his run of 29 consecutive starts, and kept him out of the team for the next six weeks, as manager Micky Adams switched his tactics during McCombe's absence, moving from a 3–5–2 to 4–4–2 formation. He was offered a new two-year contract by the club at the end of the season, which he quickly signed.
  He started 2010–11 in fine form, and his strong performances in November 2010 saw him nominated for the League Two player of the month award. His strong performances continued throughout the season, and he was rewarded with the club's Player of the Year award.
  Adams continued to use McCombe in the heart of the Vale defence at the start of 2011–12, however he dropped him from the first team after 11 matches in favour of loan signing Liam Chilvers. He marked his return to the first team on 14 October 2011 with the second goal of a 3–0 win over Northampton Town. However, he was dropped after the next match, a 4–0 defeat at home to Morecambe, only to win back his first-team place the following month after turning down the chance to leave the club on loan. With the loanees back at their parent clubs, Gareth Owen out injured and Clayton McDonald in court, McCombe helped to guide teenage centre back Joe Davis through the final stages of the season. He agreed to sign a new two-year deal with the club in June 2012.
  He formed a solid centre-back partnership with Clayton McDonald at the start of 2012–13.  On 25 August, he scored in a 3–1 win over Morecambe at the Globe Arena, earning himself a place on the League Two team of the week. On 27 October, he was sent off for the second time in his career, again against Northampton at Sixfields, as he put in a late challenge on midfielder Alex Nicholls, who managed to score the opening goal of the match just before McCombe made his challenge; it was later confirmed that the tackle had broken Nicholls's leg. Opposition manager Aidy Boothroyd accepted McCombe's apology, and Northampton player Akinfenwa also stated that McCombe was "not a malicious character". McCombe himself picked up an injury on 1 January 2013, damaging knee ligaments in a defeat to Fleetwood Town, and was ruled out of action for several weeks. Vale secured promotion with a third-place finish at the end of the season, with McCombe playing 37 matches in a regularly changing four back. Despite still being under contract, he chose to leave the club in the summer.
caption: McCombe playing for Port Vale in 2009
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