DAN Parslow has stressed the importance of scoring first ahead of this afternoon’s trip to Fleetwood Town.

At the midway point of the season, the team that has taken the lead in League Two games involving the Minstermen has gone on to win 13 times, grabbed at least a share of the spoils on six occasions and lost just once.

New Year’s Day opponents Burton Albion are the only side to have recovered from an initial losing position before going on to take maximum points in a fixture featuring Gary Mills’ team.

Paddy McLaughlin opened the scoring on that September night but, otherwise, when City have broken the deadlock in League games this season, the team have gone on to win seven of the matches and drawn a further three.

Equally as telling are the final outcomes when the Minstermen have fallen behind first in League combat – not once have they fought back to claim maximum points, going on instead to lose six of the clashes, while sharing the spoils on just three occasions.

Parslow witnessed a promising first-half display unravel at Chesterfield on Boxing Day when the hosts made a 46th-minute breakthrough and went on to win 3-0.

Similarly, October’s home match with today’s opponents Fleetwood saw City command the first 30 minutes before falling behind to a Junior Brown goal and eventually losing the match 2-0.

Ahead of the trip to Highbury, Parslow said: “We need to get that first goal because, at the moment, when we don’t, it’s costing us. It was the same when we played Fleetwood earlier this season.

“We should have picked up three points that day but ended up with nothing.”

Parslow also agrees with manager Mills’ assertion that the team must stop producing substandard second-half performances.

During the last five games, which include 4-1 and 3-2 victories over Bristol Rovers and Rochdale respectively, the North Yorkshire outfit have failed to score once after the interval but conceded seven goals during that time.

On that perturbing statistic, Parslow added: “Time and time again we have played well for the first 45 minutes and not kicked on with our second-half performances. We can’t keep playing for 45 minutes and have got to be on the front foot for the whole match.”

Currently playing at right-back, Parslow was also disappointed, from a defensive perspective, by the manner of the goals shipped against Chesterfield and is hoping to help to restore pride at Fleetwood, where the visitors will be aiming to end a run of ten games without a clean sheet.

The former Wales under-21 international said: “All of the goals at Chesterfield were poor ones to concede and, as well as we kept possession in the first half, if you let goals in like that, you won’t win games of football. It’s not as if we're being opened up in general play by teams that are better than us either.

“But you always get another chance to put things right and, hopefully, we will travel to Fleetwood and put on a good show. We’ve got to bounce back.”