Sam Parkin grateful for chance at Queens after injury troubles

WHEN Sam Parkin held childhood aspirations of playing for a team with “Queen” in its name, the one based in Dumfries wasn’t prominent in his thoughts.

Parkin joked about his strong affiliation to Queens Park Rangers to the Queen of the South manager, Gus MacPherson, at the time of penning a short-term deal at Palmerston this week. “They play in blue and white and have ‘Queen’ in the name, it’s a no-brainer,” Parkin said.

The striker hopes a regular return to competitive action can also trigger a Queens move away from the foot of the First Division. To Parkin’s credit, he spurned opportunities in England and higher up Division One to agree a contract until the end of the season with MacPherson.

Upon leaving St Johnstone, Parkin simply had first-team football in mind. “To be perfectly honest, I just want to play a number of matches in a row again,” the amiable Londoner explains. “It didn’t really bother me where the team I signed for was sitting in the league, although, from what I have seen, we have a good chance of getting away from there.

“People might question what I have done but this is a football decision. I play my best football when I am settled and content. That’s the case now. I am happy where I am.”

The continued ambiance of Glasgow’s bohemian west end, then, where Parkin has comfortably set up home was as much a selling point as wage values on a contract. “I didn’t want to uproot just four months before the end of the season,” he added.

“I had a gut feeling when I met the manager a couple of times that this would be the right thing for me. He was determined to get me, said I would be important to him and that was a nice thing to have. I haven’t played in the First Division before but, from what I hear, my game should suit it.

“Everyone in football gives you advice on what to do. My head was spinning for a couple of days. I sat and wrote down all the pros and cons of where I could go and, from there, it seemed that what I was doing was right.”

Parkin’s most profitable period came during a three-year spell at Swindon Town. If his on-field approach is aggressive, the 29-year-old’s considered off-field demeanour is anything but.

Earlier a trainee at Chelsea, the targetman counts Ipswich and Luton among ten English sides he has been signed to since his youth.

Parkin’s ideal scenario, though, would be to make a summer return to Scotland’s top flight. Such aspirations must be put in context; after breaking down in pre-season, amid recovery from a fractured ankle which, in total, kept him from competitive football for ten months, the continuation of his career at any level was seen as a bonus.

“There were times when I thought I might not play again,” Parkin concedes. “I had fractures before but to have one at 29, then with complications which required more surgery, it was tough.

“It was the hardest time of my career. [Former St Johnstone manager] Derek McInnes had been keen to get me back involved then I broke down again during a session at Stirling University. I remember wondering if I could go through it all again; the crutches, being stuck at home, having my leg elevated for weeks and then such a gradual rehab.”

Under McInnes’s successor, Steve Lomas, Parkin made just a single start in a defeat to Aberdeen. The forward is philosophical about what happened next, with Lomas’s desire to make his own imprint on the Perth side as pertinent as Parkin’s earlier struggles with injury.

“That Aberdeen start kind of came from nowhere but I thought I did okay,” he recalls. “I wasn’t quite up to speed, which was only natural, but it was a relief to be back out playing even although we lost the game.

“I would have liked more of an opportunity after that but the manager there has Francisco Sandaza, Cillian Sheridan and Marcus Haber, who have all done really well this season. It was obvious I was going to be placed behind them.”

MacPherson will offer greater opportunity. Parkin hardly lacks the motivation to seize it.