MICHAEL Symes hopes to have a new contract finalised in the next couple of weeks – and he believes Stanley need 10 more wins to secure their place in the League Two play-offs.

Symes’ future was the subject of much speculation during January but the only team to bid were League Two strugglers Grimsby, whose final offer of £100,000 was turned down. Stanley are now keen to secure the striker’s future by extending his contract beyond the end of this season.

The Liverpudlian remains a little cautious on the subject but hopes a deal will be concluded soon to allow him to concentrate 100 per cent on Stanley’s play-off push.

The ninth-placed Reds have 17 matches still to play, with several games in hand on many of the teams around them, and Symes believes 10 wins – starting with three points at strugglers Torquay tomorrow – should be enough to earn a place in the top seven.

On his contract negotiations, the 26-year-old said: “It’s still ongoing but hopefully it will be sorted in the next couple of weeks.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens, but I’m enjoying my football here and it’s close to where I live.

“If we can get something sorted in the next couple of weeks, it will be out of the way and I can forget about it and just think about football.

“We’ve been on the edge of the play-offs for a while but every time we’ve had a chance of going into the play-off positions we’ve lost or drawn. The first thing we do after a game is look where we are in the table so it would be great tomorrow night to see us in the play-offs.

“It’s been an even league this season but I’d say from 17 games, if we can get 10 wins and maybe a couple of draws that should be enough.

“I think we can do that.”

Stanley are travelling down to Devon this morning and Symes hopes they can get back to winning ways away from home after recent defeats at Northampton and Lincoln, together with a draw at Macclesfield, left some writing off their play-off hopes.

Symes himself is without a goal in seven games but already has 14 for the season.

“I suppose it’s a good thing that people are noticing I haven’t scored because it shows I have been scoring a lot this season,” he said.

“I just need to get one and I’ll be up and running again.

“For people to say that was it after we lost one or two games was frustrating.

“We deserved nothing at Northampton but Lincoln was one of the most one-sided games you’ll ever see and it was just a crazy last 10 minutes.

“We got a good result at home to Bradford on Saturday and it would be nice to get an away win now to get the away record going again.”