VETERAN York City striker Jon Parkin has defended himself after criticism for being filmed drinking alcohol in the morning at a UK airport.

City chief Sam Collins questioned Parkin’s conduct after seeing a Twitter video of the 36-year-old forward carrying a pint on his way to watching the Feyenoord v PSV Eindhoven match as part of an offshoot for his undrthecosh podcast.

Supporters of the club have also taken to social media to criticise Parkin and question his commitment to the club.

In response, Parkin has insisted that there were no instructions for him to refrain from drinking alcohol on the club-sanctioned trip and argued that he only indulged because he was told to report back at the club in three days’ time.

The showcase Holland match was played the day after City’s 2-0 home win over FC United of Manchester during the first weekend of December and, explaining his actions, Parkin said: “There were no instructions about not drinking on the trip.

“Fair enough, it doesn’t look great being filmed drinking at an airport in the morning, but I had the next two days off and I’m trying to make a career for myself after football and that type of thing is the way we are going with the podcast. I had a day off for the Holland trip sanctioned six weeks ago for the Monday after the FC United game.

“I wasn’t involved in that game and I then got a message back from the physio (Ian Gallagher) saying that I wouldn’t be involved in the Tuesday night game against Leamington and that he would see me Wednesday morning, so I took it from that I wasn’t wanted in and around the squad. Everything was signed off – I didn’t just say: ‘Right, I’m going.’ “But it seems like I’m taking the brunt for things now, when nothing was said about it before I went on the trip. Everyone is coming for me and stuff is being thrown at me, but I haven’t started a game for three months and I’m not in the squad now.

“If the club aren’t happy with me going on the trips, then they should say so. I’ll have a chat with the manager and see what he says, because I thought it was totally uncalled for to dig me out when it was a team that I wasn’t playing in that had been nowhere near good enough in a 2-0 defeat at Boston and a 2-2 draw with Leamington.

“Surely, those results are more to do with the players who were picked and would anything have been said about me if the team had won on Saturday?”

Parkin went on to contend that neither of his off-the-pitch projects – the undrthecosh podcast and his book Feed the Beast – had unduly impacted on his commitments to City as a full-time professional footballer.

“When Sam took over as caretaker manager, I started a couple of games but, then, he told me I wouldn’t be playing much and he said he understood about all my other stuff away from football, like the podcast and the book,” Parkin added. “From my point of view, there is a good chance that I will be finished as a player at the end of this season and I’m trying to bed myself in for something after football.

“He told me to ask him if I needed any days off, but I think I’ve only had two for undrthecosh-related stuff and none for the book. I did a book signing on a Friday night at Barnsley after I had been told I wouldn’t be in the squad for the Kidderminster game that lunchtime.

“We also did a trip to Germany for undrthecosh at the end of September that had been arranged five months ago and I OK’d that with Sam. The Nuneaton game was then re-arranged for the Tuesday after that weekend, but I went with the blessing of the club and, knowing I was in the squad for Nuneaton, I only drunk coffee and water on the trip and then scored to get us a point when I came back, so nothing was said about my weekend away then.”

Parkin has been challenged by fans online, meanwhile, to honour a statement he made earlier this season, suggesting that he would tear up his City contract at Christmas if he wasn’t involved in the team.

But, with reflection, he admitted that is not something he is willing to do and, despite at least one of City’s National League North rivals being interested in taking him on loan, he is not in favour of a temporary move from Bootham Crescent either.

“I perhaps made that contract remark in a radio interview, but I don’t think I could do that,” the former Championship campaigner confessed. “I’ve got a contract that the club have given me and I don’t think anybody would do that, so why should I?

“I’m nearly 37 and gone are the days where I want to go out on loan for a month somewhere as well. If it was until the end of the season, then I’d obviously think about it, but otherwise there is no benefit in me doing it.

“Sometimes, you can hit the ground running when you go out on loan, but sometimes you need a month to get going and, by that time, the club could be sending you back.”

City supporters have also noted Parkin’s absence at first-team fixtures when he is not in the match-day squad, with the ex-Hull and Stoke attacker declaring: “I want to be playing in the team here every week but, if I’m not being selected, there’s not a lot I can do about that.

“I don’t want to be sat watching, because that’s even more frustrating, especially when things aren’t going well. I’m in training every day and there’s not much more I can do, but it’s been the same throughout my career – whether we’re talking when I was 21 or 36 like I am now – I need games to stay 100 per cent fit.”