He was never City's most successful player, one of what feels like thousands who didn't utilise their talents sufficiently when joining the Tigers, but nonetheless it's a hard-hearted member of the Tiger Nation who doesn't sympathise with Ian McParland today.
McParland was sacked after two years in charge of Notts County yesterday, even though the club are fifth in the bottom division and are enjoying their best season for quite some time after a good few years at the lower end of the lowest echelons, kicking and screaming as the Conference's doors swing open.
Whatever rhetoric comes out of the club, it's blindingly obvious that the new owners want a "big name" to satisfy their big investment and complement the big, nay enormous, ego that Sven Goran Eriksson possesses in the Director of Football role. McParland's devotion to Notts County and knowledge of the club - he was a player there for nine years prior to joining the Tigers in 1989, and a damned good one too - didn't seem to arm him with any clout over his long-term suitability, never mind his actual success thus far in the job.
McParland was a burly, tough attacker who could either create from a deep-lying role or play as an out-and-out centre forward. His lack of height was an issue; his lack of bulk was not, and sheer strength probably proved the key factor in progressing as a footballer in an era where skill was barely noticed if a youngster was not deemed big enough.
He was purchased by Eddie Gray just before deadline day in 1988-9, a month after City had famously exited the FA Cup against Liverpool, and instantly made an impact as the Tigers beat Plymouth Argyle 3-0. More quirkily, his £155,000 fee was a club record for mere days, as Peter Swan arrived later the same week for £200,000. A look at McParland's excellent record for the Magpies, who were in the division below, reassured the Tiger Nation that it was money well spent.
McParland (and Swan, and loanee Dougie Bell) joined, however, at a time when the Tigers were in total freefall. It had been looking promising right up to the Liverpool game, when City lost 3-2 after being 2-1 up at half time. The real disappointment of losing from a winning position, even allowing for the immensity of the opposition, took its toll and Gray could seemingly do nothing about it. There was a half chance of a play-off place, yet ultimately a wretched sequence of just one win - that game against Plymouth - for the remaining three months of the campaign saw City finish a woeful fourth bottom of the second tier and cost Gray his job.
And the Plymouth win itself could easily be put down to the impact of three debutants who were unaware of the slide in confidence going on around them. All three played well, although the real highlight was a goal of both beauty and rarity from Richard Jobson, who hit a left-footed half volley from distance that pierced the top corner of the net. Genuinely one of the great Boothferry Park strikes.
Defeats and draws were the order of the day afterwards, and McParland scored once - a well-fashioned equaliser against Oldham Athletic to earn a share of the spoils. With Gray gone and Colin Appleton back in charge, McParland seemed to settle down on a personal level with the Tigers but the team as a whole were pitiful.
McParland scored one of City's four goals at Bournemouth, but the Tigers lost 5-4. He was on target in a 1-1 draw at Port Vale, and then scored the opener with a diving header - and a somersault of celebration before the disgruntled travelling supporters - as City took the lead against Newcastle United at Boothferry Park, but then went on to lose 3-1.
Most famously, McParland ran the show on his own in a home game against Swindon Town, setting up two headers for Peter Swan which gave the Tigers a commanding lead. McParland himself could have had a couple of his own making - one left-footed chip from the corner of the penalty area which the keeper managed to fingertip over leaps to mind - prior to Appleton inexplicably substituting him with an hour gone. Swindon won 3-2.
McParland was City's best performer within a team that couldn't win. This was a worrying time for the Tigers, as we got to a dozen winless games at the beginning of the campaign and national headlines were being created about our plight, in typically condescending manner - being referred to as "little Hull" by the dreadful Elton Welsby on ITV was especially galling.
Don Robinson quit as chairman in the November and Richard Chetham was installed at the helm of the boardroom. He immediately fired Appleton and installed Stan Ternent as manager. A game at Bradford City followed, and it proved the turning point of what was becoming a truly humiliating season, even by Tigers' standards. Much surprise was expressed when both McParland and Andy Payton, shortly to become statistically one of the club's best ever goalscorers, were left on the bench, but they were thrown on at 2-1 down in the second half and after Payton's poached header restored parity, McParland was sent through in injury time and slid a divine shot into the corner to earn a first win of the season.
This goal, ahead of any others, will remain the main memory that City fans have of McParland. Ternent, in rescuing the Tigers from the drop (with admirable ease, it has to be said) never fully took to him and he only scored one more goal for the Tigers, one day short of a whole year later. By this time, Ternent's policy of recruiting players whose vast experience was coloured by equally vast wages had backfired appallingly, and even by the autumn of 1990 it seemed inevitable that the Tigers' borrowed time had run out. In a home game with Ipswich Town, the game had gone to and fro, with twice City going ahead (two from Payton) and twice the visitors replying. Then Jason Dozzell put Ipswich in front with 15 minutes left and McParland was immediately thrown on as a sub. His response was to whizz a superb curling free kick into the back of the net and salvage a point, telling the press afterwards that he wanted to stay but it was out of his hands.
Ultimately, Ternent didn't sell him - his welcome dismissal on New Years Day 1991 put paid to that - but Terry Dolan did; indeed, McParland never played for Dolan, featuring just once under heroic caretaker boss Tom Wilson before a spell in the wilderness when Dolan arrived then. Eventually he went to Walsall.
Too much was going on, or beginning to go on, behind the scenes to take any real notice of individual players at Hull City at the start of the 1990s. The regime changes and financial concerns meant that putting out a team, pretty much any team, was an achievement in itself. But with McParland, retrospect suggests that this was one good player who, probably through force of personality with managers, was allowed to slip through the net too easily. He certainly had off-days, but he was evidently a quality footballer when permitted to be, through being both selected and loved. As he garners the sympathy of a nation's football observers this week, it's worth remembering that he deserved a fair bit of sympathy from Hull City fans almost two decades ago.
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