LUKE Summerfield is hoping to help York City team-mate Keith Lowe take his goal tally into double figures this season.

Centre-back Lowe is the Minstermen's joint-top scorer seven games into the new season, having headed in corners against Tranmere and Exeter.

The 28-year-old defender, who has netted 21 times during his professional career, could have also added several more to that haul from Summerfield set-pieces this term, including a missed volleyed chance from three yards during Tuesday 2-0 Johnstone's Paint Trophy defeat at Barnsley.

Summerfield reckons, though, that the ex-Cheltenham Town team-mates can continue to combine and get a greater reward from his dead-ball deliveries.

The Devon-born, 26-year-old said: "We've had a lot of chances from set-pieces and we work on routines in training. We've got some big boys and it's all abut me putting the ball in the areas they want it, so they can go and score the goals.

"It's the first time I have really taken all off the corners at a club, but I really enjoy trying to tee up my team-mates for goals. It gives me a lot of confidence and I will be looking to improve them throughout the season.

"I would love to see Lowey with ten goals at the end of the season, if I'm still taking set-pieces. That would be outstanding and I've told him that he could have had two hat-tricks already!"

Summerfield admitted, meanwhile, that he has been disappointed with his own failure to get on the scoresheet during the new campaign.

He has hit the target just once in his last 42 games but has had a series of long-range efforts for his new club and believes he should have done better.

"I've had a few chances and been disappointed with the outcome of everyone of them," Summerfield confessed. "We are all desperate to get on the scoresheet and we would take one off the knee, shin or toe to get a 1-0 win at the moment.

"We are having a lot of chances and a lot of play in that final third, so that's a positive. We just need that killer instinct to put the ball in the back of the net and we have got the strikers and midfielders to do that."

A record of one goal from open play has contributed to City's five consecutive draws at the start of their SkyBet League Two campaign.

Nigel Worthington's men could have lost three matches and still accumulated one more point than their current total with two wins, but Summerfield has stressed the psychological benefits of avoiding defeat in the league so far, saying: "We are building confidence from being unbeaten because we know how well we are playing and that a win is around the corner.

"We are not scrapping for points and struggling through games to get draws. A point has been the worst-case scenario in each match really, because we have played well in all of them, but draws can still be classed as more positive than losses.

"Being unbeaten, therefore, is always nice to say, but we are desperate to get that win on board."