AMID all the heart-felt, earnest debate that characterised York City Supporters Trust special general meeting this week, possibly my favourite moment from the night was one of welcome levity.

With Trust chairman John Lacy starting the evening by making a series of introductions, City legend Alf Patrick – still the only man to ever score five goals in a first-team fixture at the soon-to-be-bulldozed Bootham Crescent – was asked to stand up having been described as the eldest-known surviving member of the fans’ body at 96.

Within seconds, Lacy was being corrected by City Main Stand season-ticket holder Graham Munday who, at one year Patrick’s senior, pointed out: “That’s not quite true and Alf will know that because I used to play in goal with him.”

It was a truly memorable moment of light relief involving Patrick who remembers watching cricket at Bootham Crescent before the football club moved in and Munday – a life-long supporter who first watched the club play at Fulfordgate in the 1920s.

Both have retained their sense of humour, as well as a love of the Minstermen, for little under a century and, for a club that has not been a barrel of laughs to follow in recent times, it was a timely reminder that football is supposed to be fun.

City’s current striking favourite Jon Parkin would certainly subscribe to that viewpoint and his goalscoring exploits since returning to North Yorkshire have, at times, provided some cheer during the relegation into regionalised football and its aftermath, including the fiercely-divisive shares issue.

Off the pitch, Parkin has a reputation for putting smiles on people’s faces too and that humour is a big highlight of the excellent new Under The Cosh podcast the Minstermen’s 37-year-old veteran has launched with former Preston and Doncaster team-mate Chris Brown.

The third episode of the one-hour fortnightly talk-show style productions will be released tomorrow and, for anybody in need of a cheery break from the relentlessly intense saga at Bootham Crescent, I’d recommend a listen.

For those easily offended by colourful language, it’s probably not a great idea to tune in but, otherwise, there will no doubt be more laugh-out-loud moments, chiefly delivered courtesy of Parkin’s natural South Yorkshire wit and killer one-liners – my personal favourite coming in the first podcast when, as a sincere Brown referred to Wayne Rooney as a “family man”, the Barnsley-born behemoth, with perfect timing, countered “family man-ish”.

Without issuing spoilers for anybody who would like to catch up on previous broadcasts, there are also several hilarious tales involving the Beast’s career but, equally, it is clear Parkin is by no means just a changing-room clown and on-air jester.

He also articulates interesting and thought-provoking opinions, most notably during his observations on the role-model expectations of footballers during that first podcast.

Getting that balance right between comedy and insightful material is indeed important to both Brown and Parkin, who said: “Football can get massively serious and, day in, day out, I always like to have a crack with the lads and, whichever club I’ve been at, I’ve usually been at the centre of that.

“As a player, I’ve also always been somebody who, as soon as it’s 4.45pm on a Saturday, I forget about the game – good or bad. If I’ve scored a hat-trick, I don’t think too much about that and, if I’ve missed chances, I don’t either, because it’s been and gone.

“That’s pretty much always been the case with me. It’s the same before matches – some players start thinking about them from 12pm on a Saturday, but I don’t start thinking about the game until we get in from the warm-up.

“Some people might construe that as me not caring, because they might also see me laughing or joking during a Saturday night out in Barnsley and fans can give you stick if you’re out, but people have lives away from football. It’s your job and, whilst I can understand why people get frustrated with results, you could be out with your wife’s friends for her birthday and, just because you’ve not played well, that shouldn’t make any difference to that.

“But, while we want people to enjoy the podcasts, we also want them to get a better idea of how football works and what it’s like to be a footballer by covering both the good and bad experiences. If we just went down the banter route, eventually it would become a bit boring.

“There’s plenty of those podcasts around and we want this one to be different, so there’s serious talk about lots of issues as well.”

The podcast was originally the brainchild of the Chris Brown and the main presenter and Bolton-based comedian who shares the same name, but Parkin was added to the team after his charismatic appearance on the first show.

That episode reached number five in the iTunes charts, attracting 5,000 listeners with Parkin a natural, whose style would easily complement Talksport’s informal chatty format.

It’s not a career path the former Championship campaigner has given too much consideration until now, reasoning: “I still want to go into management - that would be my first aim but, if I could do this type of thing alongside that, then great.

“If anybody is listening to the podcasts, then they will know what I’m like as a person. Whether that’s a good or bad thing, I don’t know, but everything in terms of feedback has been positive so far.

“It’s totally off the bat – not rehearsed. Chris – the main presenter – does his research on the guests’ careers and starts the questions, but we just chip in and let the guests talk otherwise.

“We did the first two in a Manchester pub so, whilst I don’t know anything about sound quality, there were a few issues with that. But we’ve got a studio now so, hopefully, that will be better.”

Parkin has promised, meanwhile, that he will include some York City stories at some point and, on forthcoming shows, he said: “We’re looking to have a different guest on for every episode and we might go weekly depending on popularity.

“The next one tomorrow is with Billy Paynter and it should be good. Whereas the first one had a lot of humour in it and the second one with Andy Griffin was a little more serious, the third is somewhere in between.

“He talks about how he has been treated by managers in the past and at a certain club he was treated horrendously and your average fan isn’t always aware of the type of things like that which go off. We’ve also got Dominic Matteo lined up.

“At the moment, we’re calling in favours from lads that we know but, hopefully, we can get to the point where we start paying for guests to come on and take things from there.”

To listen to tomorrow’s third Under The Cosh podcast visit…

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/undr-the-cosh/id1352733984?mt=2