DAVID Ferguson has insisted recent success at Salford counts for little as York City look to turn the tables on the title favourites again.

The Minstermen knocked this weekend’s National League North hosts out of the FA Cup last month, following a 2-1 triumph at Moor Lane.

Ferguson, meanwhile, bagged a brace on the opening day of the season for former club Darlington when new City chief Martin Gray masterminded a 2-0 win for the Quakers in Greater Manchester.

But the former Blackpool left-back is expecting Salford to present a different challenge to last weekend’s hosts Leamington, who City dominated for long periods before throwing away the chance of victory by conceding a couple of late goals in the 2-2 draw.

“I played at Salford in the first game of the season and scored twice so, hopefully, I can do that again or get more goals,” Ferguson smiled. “But the past is the past.

“It’s nice to talk about history like that, but it’s a new week, day and game. Whereas Saturday was a one-sided match, I think this will be a real battle and we have just got to turn up and start as well as we did at Leamington.

“It’s going to be a tough game and we’ll have to be solid as well, as you have to be wherever you go. But, on their patch, we’ll need to stay compact and together to drag each other through.”

Second-placed Salford lie seven points ahead of the Minstermen with a game in hand and the gap to leaders Harrogate stretches to ten, but Ferguson is adamant that gulf can be closed.

“There’s still a long way to go,” he reasoned. “We dropped two points in the last game, but still got one more towards where we want to be.”

Having made his City debut at full back, Ferguson’s second outing saw him line up on the wing at Leamington, with Alex Whittle recalled for the injured Aidan Connolly.

On that switch, the former Championship defender added: “I can play both positions – left back or left wing.

“The gaffer sees my forward play and that I like running and driving forward with the ball, which can make me an attacking threat. If he (Whittle) goes forward, I can also fill in at left back.

“It’s a nice little partnership and it was just a shame he went off injured but, hopefully, he’ll be alright.”

Following Whittle’s 82nd-minute departure, Junior English and Liam Canavan earned the home side a point and Ferguson confessed that the unwelcome late twist to the game represented a lesson to be learned for the visitors.

“It was totally one-sided for 85 minutes and our only downfall up to that point was that we should have taken more chances,” the Sunderland-born, 23-year-old explained. “It should have been more than 1-0 at half-time but, at 2-0, everyone thought that the win was there for us.

“You can’t really think like that, though, at any level and we have got to do better than the errors we made for their two goals, because that cost us.”

Ferguson also believed he could have done better with a second chance to hit the target during that dominant opening 45 minutes when he aimed wide from an unchallenged position ten yards from goal.

“The ball got stuck under my foot and, maybe, I should have had another touch, because I snatched at it a bit and I still had two or three yards of space,” he admitted.

Despite only scoring once in 48 professional appearances for Darlington and Blackpool, Ferguson has already netted five times this term, with his first City goal following four for the County Durham part-timers.

On his hopes for the rest of the campaign, he added: “I’ve got five now and double figures is a realistic target, because we’re only a third of the way into the season and there are plenty of matches left to do it in.”

Having spent the first half of last week attending Paul Fairclough’s England C training camp at Lilleshall, Ferguson is also hoping to receive a call-up from his country for next month’s International Challenge Trophy final against Slovakia.

“There were 22 of us at the training camp and 16 will be selected so, fingers crossed, I can get picked again,” he said. “I captained the team for the second match against Jersey in the summer, so you never know what’s in store.”