VETERAN striker Jon Parkin would like to carry on playing next season – and is hoping he can do that with York City.

The 37-year-old forward is out of contract this summer and hasn’t started a game for the Minstermen since the 1-1 draw at Hereford on September 1.

His last of three goals this season, meanwhile, was scored a month later at Nuneaton but, despite having failed to feature in any of Sam Collins’ last nine matchday squads as manager, Parkin has been used as a substitute in four of Steve Watson’s nine matches at the Bootham Crescent helm.

It will be exactly 20 years next month since Parkin made his professional debut for home-town club Barnsley and, having gone on to play in the Championship and win promotion to the Premier League with Stoke, the ex-Hull and Preston striker does not want his playing career to finish with a whimper.

With 224 goals to his name, he would still also like to reach 250 before hanging up his boots.

Offering his thoughts on the prospect of retirement, Parkin admitted: “I’d like to carry on and, if I am to carry on, I’d like to carry on here. I’ve not made a decision yet but, even though I’m coming towards the end of my career, I don’t want to go out on the back of the season I’ve had where I’ve not been playing.

“I’ve said before that I wouldn’t mind getting to 250 goals. I was hoping to get towards that or actually get to it this season, but my playing time has obviously been limited, so I’ll see how I am at the end of the season and take things from there.”

Parkin hit the target 25 times in 32 games last season, having broken the post-War club record for goals in a calendar year when he plundered 36 during 2017, nudging him one ahead of Richard Brodie’s haul eight years earlier.

But, this term, the 6ft 4in marksman has only kicked off three fixtures with Jordan Burrow having started the last 31 games as the side’s attacking talisman.

During that time, Burrow has seen his City status soar from misfiring, out-of-favour forward to club captain and a scorer of 17 goals, with Parkin admitting the former England C international’s form has made it difficult for him to demand more opportunities during 2018/19.

“It’s been a frustrating season for me, but Jordan has done really well, and I can’t really do much about that.,” Parkin reasoned. “I’ll be honest, if I was five years younger and not playing, I’d have been banging on the door every Monday showing my frustration.

“But, if you’re a striker and the person in your position is doing well, you can’t really complain. If I was in the team and somebody got in because they’d had a moan, I wouldn’t be happy and that’s not how football should be, so I’ve just had to take the situation on the chin.”

With eight games left to play and no deal on the table for next season, Parkin is now desperate to demonstrate to Watson that he can still cut the mustard at National League North level, but also confessed that completing 90 minutes, which he last achieved during Martin Gray’s final game in charge against Curzon Ashton in mid-August, might be unrealistic.

“Because I’ve not played for so long, if I started a game, I might only last an hour,” Parkin reasoned. “That’s down to my age and the way I have always been as somebody who needs to be playing games week in, week out. I’m sure, if the gaffer does pick me, he will take that into consideration.”

Since returning for a second spell with the Minstermen in November 2016 from League Two outfit Newport County, Parkin has started 61 games and netted 44 times, with a further 20 appearances coming from the bench.

Included in those goals was a header at Wembley during the 3-2 victory over Macclesfield in the final of the FA Trophy, where he would have also grabbed the winner had Aidan Connolly not stolen the limelight by prodding in from an inch.

Parkin still feels he has unfinished business with City, though, having been part of the squad that was relegated from the National League that season.

“When I came back to the club, it was to help keep them in the league we were in,” he pointed out. “We didn’t achieve that and my aim then was to help the club get back in that league last season and I don’t think I could have done much more on a personal level.

“It was just unfortunate that I got injured for the last eight games when we were up to fourth. That’s just football and we ended up falling away at the end of the season.”