Bench mark for Jon Parkin on Bootham Crescent return (From York Press)

Bench mark for Jon Parkin on Bootham Crescent return

11:00am Tuesday 2nd October 2012 in Sport

FORMER York City striker Jon Parkin is likely to be warming the bench when he returns to Bootham Crescent with new club Fleetwood Town tonight.

Parkin, now 30, has been struggling to shrug off a knee injury since arriving at Highbury in the summer but has featured in all nine of the Cod Army’s npower League Two fixtures so far this term.

He remains the club’s joint-leading marksman in 2012/13, along with winger Junior Brown, but all three of the 6ft 4in tall forward’s goals came in a 4-0 triumph at neighbours Morecambe and he has been a substitute during the last two games.

Front two David Ball and on-loan Blackpool teenager Tom Barkhuizen are expected to retain their starting places after both netting in Saturday’s 2-1 home win over a ten-man Barnet team, who had ’keeper Graham Stack sent off after 24 minutes.

Stack was dismissed for conceding a penalty that Ball went on to convert to level the scores.

But should Parkin get on the pitch, he is just two goals short of racking up a century of League goals having also plied his trade with Hull, Stoke, Preston, Cardiff, Doncaster, Huddersfield and Scunthorpe since leaving City for Macclesfield back in 2004.

Ex-Wrexham striker Andy Mangan will not be adding to his 87 career goals, however, as he requires a scan on a training ground injury.

Third-placed Fleetwood have been more impressive at the other end of the pitch this season and have not conceded an away goal in League Two for more than five hours since Bradford’s James Hanson grabbed the only goal in a Valley Parade home win back in mid-August.

Since then, their last three hosts Burton (1-0), Morecambe (4-0) and Bristol Rovers (0-0) have all been kept off the scoresheet and a record of only one goal conceded on their travels can only be matched by Chelsea and Arsenal in the top four divisions of English football.

High-flying Port Vale did, though, win 5-2 at Fleetwood’s Highbury base, which was Micky Mellon’s team’s only defeat in the last eight matches.

Fleetwood: (probable) Davies, Beeley, McNulty, Mawene, Howell, Marrow, Johnson, McGuire, Brown, Barkhuizen, Ball.


How it was back then

City team (v Fleetwood): Ingham, Oyebanjo, Parslow, Doig, Gibson, Meredith, Bopp (Moké, 46), McLaughlin, Blair, Tonne (Blinkhorn), Reed (Chambers).

Number one UK single on April 7, 2012: Turn Up The Music (Chris Brown).

It also happened on the day: Cambridge beat Oxford in the London Boat Race after the race is restarted due to a swimmer, who is arrested.