Fire away!: Luke Summerfield reveals Russell Penn's blockbuster has inspired York City's players to have a crack at goal

City skipper Penn scored only his second goal in 94 matches when he rattled in a 35-yard thunderbolt last week against Morecambe - a strike that emphatically guaranteed the club’s Football League status for next season.

He also forced Shrewsbury keeper Jayson Leutwiler into a spectacular save from a similar distance at the weekend, prompting midfield team-mate Summerfield to hit an upright from distance soon afterwards.

On his ex-Cheltenham team-mate’s sudden shoot-on-sight policy, Summerfield said: “Russ is top quality to play with and there’s a lot to his game but, for some reason, he’s decided to get his shooting boots out for the last two games.

“I don’t know where they’ve been locked away for the last five years but he could have got an even better goal at Shrewsbury than the one he got against Morecambe.

"It would have been nice for us both to get long-range goals and I think the better quality of our shots has come with a bit of confidence.

“I’m never afraid to have a go whenever I can. I want to score more goals and, if Russ can get one from long range, I think most of us can, so we should take a lot of positives from that.”

Despite City’s six-game unbeaten run coming to an end in Shropshire, Summerfield added that the unfortunate nature of defeat meant that Russ Wilcox’s men left the New Meadow with their self-belief intact.

“We went into the game with a lot of the weight off our shoulders and a lot of confidence,” the 27-year-old playmaker explained.

“We knew we could express ourselves after a tense season and felt we could easily win the game despite knowing how good Shrewsbury are and how good their home form was.

“Ultimately, it boiled down to a set-piece. In the last six weeks, we have scored a lot of important goals from set-pieces, so that left a bit of a bitter taste.

“Shaun’s (Miller) disallowed goal was onside as well but, to go to Shrewsbury and be bitterly disappointed with a 1-0 defeat after dominating the second half, gave us so many more positives than negatives and breeds confidence for the remaining games and the start of next season.

"We walked off the pitch knowing we had given probably the best team in this division a right good game and maybe should have won the game.

“Our aim was to stay unbeaten until the end of the season. It hasn’t worked out that way, but we will be trying to come away with six points from the next two matches and who knows where that will take us in the league?”

Summerfield also admitted the team can take great encourage ment from getting the better of Shrewsbury’s highly-rated midfield trio of Ryan Woods, Liam Lawrence and Bobby Grant.

“Their midfielders take some beating in this division but we gave them a whole lot of trouble - not just me and Russ but the whole team,” Summerfield reasoned.

Despite being doubtful at the weekend, meanwhile, Summerfield was in no mood for a rest following the mental and physical exertion of staving off the threat of relegation, saying: “I rolled my ankle with 20 minutes to go against Morecambe and, while I wanted to soldier on, I couldn’t feel it towards the end and had to be subbed.

CONGRATULATIONS: Luke Summerfield and Russell Penn after the skipper's goal against Morecambe

“But there was no way I wanted to miss Saturday’s game. Shrewsbury’s a good place to go and they are going for promotion so I wanted to test myself against the best midfielders in the division.”

With the prospect of racking up a fourth consecutive home win against Newport on Saturday followed by a trip to fallen giants Portsmouth seven days later, Summerfield also believes there is plenty to still look forward to before the summer break.

He said: “We want to finish positively at home to give us a building block for the start of next season.

Then, we are going to the biggest club in this league with the pressure off so we can look to enjoy ourselves.”