Catching up: Jon Parkin

As featured in our matchday programme, we caught up with ex-Iron on loan striker Jon Parkin, who was with us during the 2011-12 season and made a big impression.

On arriving on loan at the Iron, it would be the 11th club of Parkin’s career and his fourth of that particular campaign – something that isn’t allowed now under EFL rules.

He began that season with parent club Cardiff City before playing for Doncaster Rovers, Huddersfield Town and then Scunthorpe on loan – the latter of which was arguably the most successful out of the trio of loan moves. He netted six of his seven strikes for that whole campaign while in Iron colours.

“It was a very good time of my career and I enjoyed being at Scunthorpe,” he told our matchday programme.

“I came in when the team was second or third bottom of League One and the target was to stay in the division, If I remember rightly, we secured survival with a couple of games to go.

“Things weren’t working out at Cardiff. I wanted to go back up north and the three loan spells I had that season weren’t far from home so it was perfect for me really. I went to Doncaster first that year and things were going alright before the new owners came in and changed things. They didn’t want to pay my wages back to Cardiff, so that’s where things ended there. I then moved to Huddersfield and things didn’t really work out.

“The next move for me was Scunny and I feel I did alright in my time there. I knew ‘Brassy” (assistant manager Chris Brass) from my first spell at York and he asked me to come and help them stay in the division. Luckily we managed that so it was job done as far as I was concerned.”

When Parkin netted for the Iron, it never ended in defeat. He first scored in 3-1 and 4-1 victories over Leyton Orient and Wycombe Wanderers respectively, before getting three goals in draws against Charlton Athletic and Yeovil Town. His final United strike would be the winner against Exeter City.

He said: “I didn’t actually know that statistic, but knowing that now I’m glad I could’ve played a positive part in that. That Yeovil equaliser was a rearranged game, so we were back down there after the game had originally been called off. It was very foggy, but it was good to score in the last minute and come away with a point.”

With the loan moves back up north, it was inevitable that Parkin’s future would be away from Wales, but it could have been a further campaign with Scunthorpe had he chosen to accept an offer from then-manager Alan Knill. Instead, Fleetwood Town became the 12^th club of his career, where he remained for the next two seasons.

Parkin said: “To be fair, Knilly offered me a contract. We’d just stayed up and with all due respect to Scunthorpe at the time, I wanted to go to a club with ambitions and challenging at the other end of the table. It was going to be another season bobbling along in 2012-13 for the club, which is why I chose to go to Fleetwood.

“It was at the point of my career where I was on the downward slope and if the club had finished 12^th, it would have been a successful season, so I thought it was right to move on. I went to Fleetwood and got promoted in my second year there.

“I remember that season coming up against Scunny. We lost 1-0 at home and drew 0-0 at Glanford Park. I think I burst my eye in that game, but I would have liked to have taken the penalty we missed.”