ONLY five teams – all in National League’s top six positions – boast better defensive records in 2018/19 than York City’s opponents Southport this weekend.

The 15th-placed Sandgrounders have conceded 50 times in their 37 league games – a tally that is only bettered by Stockport (31), Chorley (32), Brackley (37), Spennymoor (40) and Altrincham (48), while Liam Watson’s men have shipped one goal fewer than fourth-placed Bradford Park Avenue.

A total of 23 away goals let in, meanwhile, is the fifth-lowest number in the division and the best outside the league’s top-five teams.

The Merseysiders held third-placed Brackley to a 0-0 draw last weekend but the result meant the Haig Avenue outfit have now failed to win any of their last five games – equalling their worst sequence without a victory this term, which was last endured between the end of August and mid-September.

Whereas four points were collected during that five-game sequence, though, only four have been collected during this latest sticky spell, albeit Brackley’s top-five rivals Spennymoor (1-1) and Bradford (2-2) have also been held in the last quintet of contests.

Away from home, Southport have emerged victorious on just one of their last seven trips – a 1-0 triumph at Guiseley last month.

The visitors, like their opponents, are safe from relegation but will not be troubling the play-off positions either this term, sitting 15th with a 15-point advantage over the bottom three and 12 adrift of the top seven.

Watson’s team will visit Bootham Crescent two points and two positions behind their hosts.

Leading league marksman Jack Sampson, meanwhile, is a doubt for the contest, having missed the last two games due to injury.

Sampson - a 25-year-old former England under-19 international who started out at Bolton – has netted 13 times this term, including 12 in the league.

His haul can be matched in all competitions by team-mate Dion Charles but, if Sampson is fit, the ex-Morecambe and Macclesfield striker has a record for being more potent on the road, where nine of his goals have been scored during the current campaign.

Last season’s National League North 27-goal, top-scorer Jason Gilchrist, meanwhile, will play no part having joined title-chasing Stockport on loan last week.

Gilchrist has surprisingly found game time hard to come by with the Sandgrounders this term and only hit the target on five occasions.

Southport, whose assistant-manager is former City favourite Jon McCarthy, have shared the spoils in 13 league matches this season and suffered the same number of defeats, with only Chester (11) having lost fewer games outside the top-seven teams.

The Sandgrounders did lift the Liverpool Senior Cup on Tuesday night, following a penalty shoot-out victory over Prescot Cables with the scores deadlocked 0-0 after 90 minutes.

Seven players who started against Brackley last weekend were named in the first XI.