DAVID Ferguson has admitted he is a back-five fan but insisted that York City must defend better in whatever formation they field.

The Minstermen have not conceded a single goal in three hours of football when lining up 3-5-2, encompassing the second half of the 2-0 defeat at Stockport, the entire 1-0 home victory over Boston and the opening 45 minutes of their last outing - the 2-1 loss against Kidderminster - before switching to 4-3-3 after the interval.

Ferguson, who has netted five times this term for City and previous club Darlington, also seemed to revel in the switch from left-back to wing-back, providing the cross that led to Ben Middleton’s decisive own goal in the win over Boston and testing Kidderminster keeper Brandon Hall on the stroke of half-time at Aggborough.

But, even though, statistics seem to suggest City are more solid as a back five, Ferguson argued that the players should be capable of defending equally as well in different systems.

“I like five at the back and we kept a clean sheet against Boston and a clean sheet for the first half against Kidderminster,” the former Blackpool defender pointed out. “We’ve also done a lot of work on a back five but, after we changed to a back four for the second half (at Kidderminster), we just needed to defend better regardless of which formation we were playing and I still feel I could have done better with their second goal.”

Ferguson feels that City will certainly need to be alert at the back when in-form Southport visit Bootham Crescent on Tuesday night.

The re-arranged fixture is the Minstermen’s next contest and the visitors have won their last five games, scoring three times on each occasion.

Assessing the Sandgrounders’ challenge, Ferguson reasoned: “They have been doing well and are in-form, so I’m expecting a tough game. I know a few of the guys there who are playing well and they have a few goal threats, who we will have to nullify and then play our own game to get the crowd behind us.”

The Southport game is the first of three from the next four fixtures that will be played at Bootham Crescent with Chorley and Harrogate also visiting either side of the Easter Monday trip to FC United of Manchester.

Three of the last four matches, meanwhile, will be staged away from North Yorkshire with trips to Nuneaton and Gainsborough preceding the hosting of Leamington on the penultimate weekend of the campaign, which will then conclude at Brackley on April 28.

A stark contrast in the team’s recent home and away results has emerged with City still unbeaten on their own soil in 2018, winning four of their six fixtures, while just one point has been taken from a possible 12 on their last four road trips.

Ferguson now feels that adopting a more attacking mentality on the club’s travels could hold the key to an away improvement during the final weeks of the regular campaign.

“For me, personally, I don’t think there’s any difference in playing home or away and I go into each game with the same mental preparation, so that away stat is tough to understand,” he declared. “It’s the first time I’ve really been made aware of it and I feel sorry for our travelling fans.

“Maybe, at our home ground, we think more attack-minded, whilst away it’s in our minds to be more defensive.”

Ahead of this weekend’s National League North programme of fixtures, the fourth-placed Minstermen lie 11 points behind Brackley – the team immediately above them, who have played two games fewer.

Should Kidderminster and Blyth avoid defeat at home to table-toppers Salford and away against North Ferriby respectively, Martin Gray’s team will also drop two places in the standings, with Ferguson confessing that the side’s chief aim now is to secure their top-seven spot at the earliest possible opportunity.

“We’ve got to get that play-off place sorted as quickly as we can, because we don’t want to be going to Brackley on the last day needing a win or a point,” he pointed out. “It’s looking most likely that we’ll finish between fourth and seventh now but, first of all, we’ve got to make sure we get there and three points against Southport would put us in a good position again.”

Elsewhere, Ferguson missed out on a fourth cap with England C this week, as he remained on the standby list for the 3-2 victory against Wales, which was settled by a hat-trick from Dagenham & Redbridge striker Fejiri Okenabirhie.

Instead, he has focussed on club matters this week and added: “My main attention is always with York and, whilst it’s good to get recognition for your country, I enjoy working on the training field with the lads and on what the gaffer is putting across.”