Tom Parkes

That season would end in disappointment for Parks and Rovers as the club were relegated out of the Football League for the first time since their election in 1920.

Parkes remained with Rovers for their first campaign in the Conference Premier as Darrell Clarke guided the side to a second place finish in the league, missing out on automatic promotion by just one point.

Thomas Peter Wilson Parkes (born 15 January 1992) is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for National League club Hartlepool United.

Mainly a centre-back, he can also be deployed as a left-back.

Born in Sutton-in-Ashfield, he started his career with Leicester City.

He had four loan spells with Burton Albion and one each with Yeovil Town and Bristol Rovers.

Rovers went on to secure back-to-back promotions to League One following a 92nd minute winning goal from Lee Brown.

Parkes, along with the rest of Rovers' senior players, was offered a new deal at the club.

He elected to bring his time at Rovers to an end though, deciding to join Leyton Orient

On 30 January, Parkes agreed to extend his loan at Burton until the end of the 2009–10 season.

On 22 January 2010 Parkes joined Burton Albion on a one-month loan deal to help ease their injury crisis, making his debut the following day, playing the full 90 minutes of Burton's 2–3 come back win away at Torquay United.

On 1 December 2010, Parkes secured a loan move to League One side Yeovil Town until January 2011 Parkes made two appearances for the club the first being a 0–0 draw against Colchester United in a Football League One match.

The second was a 4–2 defeat to Hartlepool United in the FA Cup.

On 24 March 2011, Parkes joined Burton Albion on loan for a second time until the end of the 2010–11 season.

Parkes joined Burton Albion on a sixth month loan deal at the start of the 2011–12 season.

However this came to a premature end after only three league games after Parkes suffered a broken ankle.

He moved to Bristol Rovers permanently in 2012 where he won two promotions and was named as the club's Player of the Year and was included in the Conference Team of the Year for the 2014–15 season.

He made his return by being named on the bench on 14 January 2012 in a match against Plymouth Argyle.

Following the end of his loan at Burton Albion, Parkes was an unused substitute for Leicester's 2–0 victory over Swindon Town in the fourth round of the FA Cup.

A few days later, Parkes joined up with fellow Leicester loanee Cian Bolger, at Bristol Rovers on an initial month-long loan deal.

Parkes made his debut against Morecambe on 11 February, re-uniting his academy defensive partnership with Bolger.

On 21 April, he was sent off for a dangerous two footed challenge on Port Vale's Chris Shuker; opposition manager Micky Adams defended Parkes, saying that in his experience "the boy is not that type of player".

Tom Parkes joined Bristol Rovers for an undisclosed fee on 20 August 2012.

He made his debut on 21 August 2012 in a 1–1 draw against Barnet, playing the full 90 minutes.

On 18 September 2012, he scored his first goal for in a Rovers shirt in away match against west country rivals Plymouth Argyle.

On 20 November 2012, he suffered a fractured ankle in a 4–0 loss away at Port Vale at Vale Park and returned to action on 1 December 2012 in the 2–0 loss to Wycombe.

When John Ward was appointed manager in December 2012, Parkes was awarded the captain's armband and picked up the League Two Player of the Month award for February 2013.

In September 2013, Parkes agreed a contract extension at Rovers to keep him at the club until 2016.

They would however go on to seal promotion at Wembley Stadium, beating Grimsby Town in the 2015 Conference Premier play-off final.

Parkes made 51 appearances in all competitions during the season, the most of any player at the club, and was named Bristol Rovers' Player of the Year at the end of the campaign.

The 2015–16 season saw Parkes struggle to hold down a regular place in the side as Mark McChrystal and Tom Lockyer were generally favoured in the centre back positions.

He left in 2016 for Leyton Orient and then spent two seasons with Carlisle United.

He was offered a new contract by Carlisle at the end of the 2018–19 season.

He moved to Exeter City in 2019.

He spent two years with Exeter and moved to Scottish side Livingston in 2021.

After three seasons with Livingston, he returned to England, signing with Hartlepool United in 2024.

Born in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, Parkes started his career at Leicester City where he is a product of their youth academy.

Parkes' first involvement with Leicester's first team came when he was named as an unused substitute as Leicester beat Swansea City 2–1 at the Walkers Stadium in the third round of the FA Cup.

On 27 May 2019, Parkes joined Exeter City.

In August 2019 he received a three-match ban for violent conduct.