YORK City stalwart Dan Parslow will not be taking third qualifying round hosts South Shields lightly after being on the receiving end of a first FA Cup upset in his career last term.

The 32-year-old defender was part of the League Two Cheltenham team that were dumped out of the competition at the second-round stage by Conference club Sutton United, who went on to gain national plaudits and infamy in equal measure courtesy of their run to a last-16 defeat against Arsenal and a pie-eating unused substitute goalkeeper.

City have now been handed what is being described a potential banana skin at a Shields team, who operate two divisions below their visitors, but have only lost once in their last 50 matches.

And, on the requirements to avoid a repeat shock, the former Welsh under-21 international, who was an unused substitute when the Minstermen were knocked out by Havant & Waterlooville in 2007, insisted: “You must not under-estimate anybody.

“Sutton went on to have a very good run in the FA Cup and beat teams higher-ranked than Cheltenham, but it’s all about mental preparation and, then, hopefully your performance will be good enough to get the result.”

Roarie Deacon’s last-minute winner for Sutton meant Parslow missed out on his first third-round contest since City gave a great account of themselves in 2011 at then Premier League outfit Bolton Wanderers before bowing out 2-0 to late Kevin Davies and Johan Elmander goals.

A year earlier, Parslow had been in the team that took the lead at Stoke through Neil Barrett before losing 3-1, with the former putting through his own goal following a monstrous long throw by Rory Delap to level the tie.

Both occasions remain the only times Parslow has pitted himself against full top-flight opposition, however, in a competitive fixture and the two-time Press Player of the Year admits the competition still has the potential to provide all players with career highlights.

“I’ve enjoyed some great runs with this club and hope that can carry on after Saturday,” he admitted. “The first aim is to get to the first round proper and, then, you want to get to that magical third round draw hopefully.

“Getting that chance to play at Premier League stadiums in the third round is up there in terms of my career highs, along with the Wembley wins here and winning the Conference with Cheltenham. It’s nice to get a bit of attention for the football club and a bit of glamour and publicity.

“It means you’re obviously doing something right and the hope is the results can be translated into good league form too.”

Whilst appreciative of the threat South Shields could present, Parslow also point to City’s victories at the likes of Spennymoor and Salford this term as a cause for optimism.

Spennymoor had not lost at home for 15 games, before City returned to North Yorkshire with maximum points earlier this month, while Salford were knocked out in the previous round of the FA Cup, despite being widely tipped to finish the campaign as National League North champions.

“South Shields won at Wembley last season like us and are a good team, who are doing very well in the league they are in, so they’ve got some good players and it’s a tough draw for us,” Parslow reasoned. “They’ve had success at home and there will be a big crowd there, so we know we can’t go up there half-hearted and we’ll be ready from the first whistle.

“We need to prove we can go away to teams who are expected to do well and get a result, which we have already done in the previous round against Salford. We know we can do it again.

“We also went to Spennymoor who hadn’t lost at home for a long time and weren’t conceding, but we won 4-2. Stats are there to be broken and, if we perform how we can, we will, hopefully, get a result.”

City, meanwhile, have only kept one clean sheet in nine matches but, in a division that is not short on goals, Parslow argued that the team still fare competitively in the goals-conceded column with only Chorley (13) having a better defensive record outside the division’s top-three teams than the seventh-placed Bootham Crescent outfit (14).

“We’ve done alright,” Parslow reasoned on performance levels at the back. “For goals conceded, we are in the league’s top five and, playing three up front, our onus is sometimes on outscoring the opposition.

“The gaffer believes in that way of playing and, as a defensive until, I feel we’ve performed well. We’ve got a new keeper in Jon (Worsnop), who has settled in well and Josh (Law) has also come in and done extremely well at right back.

“Me and Hamza played a lot of games together last season too and I think we’ve been solid enough.”