💬 Tom Parkes: “It’s a massive derby and I’m delighted to have scored in it.”

Tom Parkes was delighted with City’s demolition of Plymouth Argyle as City came away 4-0 winners at St James Park on Saturday.

The City defender scored a glancing header for City in the second half, directing home Randell Williams’ whipped free-kick, and he was thrilled to score in front of the Thatchers’ Big Bank in what was his Devon Derby debut.

“It was a great afternoon," he said. "I’m delighted to score, especially scoring at the Big Bank end, so I’m very happy with that and the great result today.

“I enjoyed it! I was a bit nervous but I’m just delighted that we got the win, and now we’ve just got to focus on the next game. But it’s a massive derby down here and I’m delighted to play in it, score in it and get a clean sheet.”

The City defender had lots of praise for the team performance: “I thought the team performance was fantastic, everyone was at it from the start of the game until the last second of it, so I think that shows that this team can bounce back from the two last results. It was a massive game today so we needed to be at it and it showed today that we were."

In terms of the defensive display, Tom was also delighted to get the clean sheet, especially on the back of two defensively-rocky performances.

He added: “Clean sheet today in a massive game. The last two games have been disappointing, but to win today like that and get the clean sheet is massive positive for us going into next week’s game. Now we’ve just got to focus on working hard for next week and going up there and getting another one.”

The home support was also tremendous and Tom was full of praise for the City faithful.

“They were massive today," he said. "You could hear them all game and when we scored it was a great feeling, so fair play to them for coming out in their numbers and being behind us as they were our twelfth man when we needed them.”