DAVY McGREGOR was thrilled to finally get his first Plymouth Albion league start against Nottingham last week.

Now the 22-year-old hooker is hoping he has done enough to get the chance to play his part in trying to keep Albion up in the Championship relegation play-offs.

"It was nice to get a run out, especially with it being our last regular home game," said Irishman McGregor, who joined Albion in the summer from Rotherham.

"It was something special.

"I was delighted my chance finally came around.

"It's been a long season and I suppose it's been one for persistence. You just have to keep performing.

"In my position there is plenty of competition with Vicks (Jon Vickers), Gaz (Gareth Evans) and Rups (Rupert Freestone).

"We all push each other and that can only been good for the squad."

McGregor started the season as Albion's third choice hooker, but then moved up to second choice when Vickers got injured.

However, he dropped down to third again in November after Rupert Freestone took his chance to impress in the British & Irish Cup matches against Ayr and Neath.

"I got injured before Christmas and fair play to Rupert he put his hands up and got in there ahead of me," said McGregor.

The young Irishman was reasonably happy with his display against Nottingham and what he had done as a replacement the week before at Bedford, but he does feel there is still more to come.

"Personally, I was happy enough (on Saturday)," he said.

"It was good to get 60-65 minutes.

"Obviously, I would have liked to have finished the game and there were a few more things I would have liked to have got into the game. I would have liked to have carried a bit more, but that probably comes with more game time.

"I was just happy to get on the pitch."

McGregor, who has now made five brief league replacement appearances and one start, hopes he has pushed his claims for the play-offs.

"Hopefully, I will keep putting my hands up and we'll see what happens," he said.

"And, if I am picked, hopefully, I can bring something different to the other guys."

Albion narrowly lost 21-19 to Nottingham last weekend.

That was their third narrow defeat since the new year.

"We are very close all the time," said McGregor. "But we are just not getting those wins.

"However, at the end of the day, it is all about those play-offs.

"I think we are performing, but it's just about doing it for 80 minutes."

He added: "The last couple of games we have shown that we can play rugby.

"I think it is just a matter of the squad keeping together now.

"There have been upsets in the past, but as a team we have always stuck together and put in good performances.

"Hopefully, come the play-offs we can really start pulling the big wins out of the bag."