SAM PARKIN will be handed an instant return to the Town side when Andy King's men travel to Barnsley on Saturday.

The 23-year-old striker has now completed the three-match ban incurred for his dismissal against Bradford City and although his manager is keen to stress that one man alone doesn't win you promotion, he knows goals go a long way to doing so.

Town drew a frustrating blank in a 1-0 defeat at Port Vale last night and paid the price for failing to turn their overwhelming first half superiority into goals.

Neither Christian Roberts or Rory Fallon were able to breach the Vale defence and one of them seems certain to suffer by dropping to the bench for the trip to face the Tykes at Oakwell.

King said: "Good play has to have an end product. Parkin is a natural goalscorer.

"He may have scored at Port Vale, he may not. All I know is that I've got him back and he goes in the team. That's the obvious thing for me.

"We won't win the league with Parkin alone. It is a team thing with everyone having to do their jobs correctly. But you need a natural goalscorer. I guarantee you now that anyone who gets out of this league this year will have two scorers in double figures.

"At Port Vale, for all our play we didn't create clear cut chances and didn't play in the box enough.

"There wasn't the threat to goal that all our possession should have created.

"Overall I didn't think we looked like scoring a goal against Port Vale.

"If I didn't have Parkin coming back then I might be a bit worried. But as I said I've the best goalscorer in the division coming back.

"That's Barnsley's worry now for the weekend."