ATTACKING talisman Jon Parkin wants his York City team-mates to be able to look in the mirror on Saturday afternoon knowing they have given their all for the football club.

The fourth-bottom Minstermen head into their final-day home clash with Forest Green needing a victory to guarantee their best chance of staying in the National League before turning their attentions to the results of the three teams immediately above them in the standings – Guiseley, Torquay and Woking.

Parkin, who has netted nine times in his last 12 league games, knows those outcomes are beyond the Minstermen’s control but, with the team having won 12 matches since Boxing Day – one more than had been managed during the previous 20 months - the 35-year-old veteran wants to summon up one final effort and, then, hope that proves enough to prevent this squad of players and the club suffering the ignominy of relegation.

He said: “Having not had a lot to cheer about over the last two years, the fans have been great.

“I just hope they can see from the effort we are putting in that we are trying our best and, whatever happens on Saturday, I want everybody to be able to look in the mirror and say they have given as much as possible because that’s all we can do. Then, if that’s not good enough, it’s not good enough.”

Parkin has never been relegated in 19 seasons as a professional and, whilst admitting this weekend will be a new experience for him, he believes recent weeks suggest that a surprise result elsewhere could earn the Minstermen a relegation reprieve if they take care of what is within their control.

Guiseley host a Solihull team fresh from having secured their place in the division for next season, Torquay entertain already-relegated North Ferriby and Woking visit manager Garry Hill’s old club Dagenham, who are already certain to meet Forest Green in the play-offs.

But, looking ahead to 90 minutes of potential twists and turns, Parkin reasoned: “It’s the most important game in my career because it’s the next one and one that can give us a chance of staying up.

“We need to get three points and then take it from there. If you look at some of the results over the weekend, you wouldn’t have thought they’d have happened, but they did.

“We just need to concentrate on ourselves and all we can do is win our match. It’s a massive game, but one I’m looking forward to.

“I’ve never been involved in a relegation battle that’s gone to the final day, so it will be interesting. We would have liked it wrapped up by now, but it is what it is and, hopefully, we can get three points and things will work out.”

Parkin was a member of the Forest Green squad that reached the play-offs during the last two seasons and, having been in the position of waiting for the regular campaign to end with one or both eyes on the prize of promotion, he pointed out: “I’ve been in their situation before and, whilst I don’t think you ease off, the manager will probably make a few changes and it’s always in the back of your mind that you don’t want to get injured so, hopefully, that can help us out.

“If you look at some of their results, they’ve been beaten by North Ferriby and Southport and drew with Maidstone at the weekend so, if we turn up and acquit ourselves properly by doing things right, we have more than a good chance of beating them even though they’ve still got a lot of good players.”

Parkin’s 75th-minute equaliser earned City a point at Woking on an afternoon when the players were not made aware of events elsewhere.

That is unlikely to be the case this weekend, but the former Hull and Stoke forward believes that the Kingfield display also illustrated the fight still left in this side.

“It was a disappointing result (at Woking), but I think we showed we have plenty of character in the team to come back again,” he argued. “We just needed something to fall for us in the last 15 minutes but, when you’re down at the bottom, sometimes these things don’t go for you.”