A SCIENTIFIC approach will help Daniel Parslow excel in League Two next season.

The defender, who penned a new deal with York City last week, has completed a five-year degree in sports science at Manchester Metropolitan University and will don the cap and gown when he becomes a Bachelor of Science at a graduation ceremony on July 13.

As well as planning for the future – the 26-year-old is hoping to use his new skills to stay in the game as a sports or performance analyst at a club after he retires – Parslow is using the techniques he has learned during his studies to give himself an edge on the pitch.

“It has been brilliant,” he explained. “It’s sports science and I have been plugging away for five years. It’s all distance learning. I did it at Manchester Metropolitan and through the Professional Footballers’ Association. It was something I would have done if I wasn’t in football.

“I’m reasonably bright and I would have gone to university but my passion for football put that on the back foot. Being a footballer, you do get some spare time and it was something I was able to do part-time.

“I’m due to graduate on July 13 – cap and gown – I’ll get all the photos done and it is nice to have it there when I need it.”

Parslow added: “You can’t play football forever and I would love to stay in the game in some capacity and this is an avenue I feel I would enjoy. Coaching has never really interested me. I have come across many coaches and never really fancied it.

“To stay in football is what I want to do and to be a sports scientist, or a performance analyst at a football club, would be the career I would like to go down eventually.

“More and more managers are taking on board that if you can get five or ten per cent more out of your squad then why not? It does cost money but everything from nuitrition, to recovery, to performance analysis can all aid performance.

“It’s something I have always been interested in, personally, and I take very seriously. I practise what I preach and I try to look after myself. If I can be better pyschologically, or improve my nuitrition, I am interested in anything that can improve my performance on the pitch.”

Parlsow, like many of his team-mates, feels York will be suited to life in League Two and, following the huge reception he and the players received following their Wembley double, he is keen to kick on.

“From watching games, I think there’s very little difference,” he said when asked to compare the Conference and League Two. “You look at teams that have got out of the Conference and stepped up and they have more than held their own. We have got nothing to fear. We play at our best when we go out there and express ourselves.

“You see the response from the city, to celebrate the double, to see the thousands of people turn out in support and congratulate our achievement was fantastic. The fact that York City is a Football League club, with its great tradition, means we can keep pushing forward.

“The atmosphere for the first league game will be incredible, I am sure. The anticipation will be there. For weeks we will do the hard graft and preparation in pre-season for that game.

“We’ve got the cup tie before that but this is why we have achieved – to get to this point. There will be a lot of excitement and everyone will want to express themselves and prove we all warrant our Football League status.”