Reluctant York City hero Keith Lowe shares limelight with strikers Wes Fletcher and Jake Hyde

With the campaign nearing its halfway point, Lowe is the club's joint-leading marksman following his brace in Saturday's 3-1 victory at Hartlepool.

He shares that honour with strikers Wes Fletcher and Jake Hyde, the trio having all netted four times in 2014/15.

Lowe's headed double means the 29-year-old defender has now hit the target 23 times in 347 matches as a professional and represented the third time he has scored twice in a match, having emulated that feat at previous clubs Port Vale and Cheltenham.

His previous best tally in a season, however, is five and Lowe has no designs on the club's golden boot prize, saying: "I've got no goal target and I will be very surprised if I'm up there as top scorer come the end of the season.

"I hope I'm not, to be honest, because I would like to think there will be a couple of strikers and wingers ahead of me. We will see, but it doesn't matter who scores as long as we are winning games."

Despite his delight at leading the way for City's first comeback win since 2012 at Hartlepool, Lowe was also undecided as to whether he would have gained more pleasure from keeping the hosts off the scoresheet at the other end.

"A clean sheet would have been nice but the two goals helped us win the game and that's all that matters at the moment," he reasoned. "We just need to get over that line with three points."

Lowe has started the last three games in the centre of defence alongside on-loan Bournemouth signing Stephane Zubar with the pair gaining praise from manager Russ Wilcox in that time.

But, with five goals having been shipped during those matches, Lowe still reckons there is room for improvement.

"It's going quite well," he said of his understanding with Zubar. "I would like a few more clean sheets but we can push on and look to build even more of a partnership."

Lowe added that he welcomed the sight of Josh Carson back in a City shirt for a full 90 minutes at Hartlepool following eight months on the sidelines with cruciate ligament damage.

The Northern Ireland international took the corners that led to both of Lowe's goals and the grateful defender admitted: "It's great to have Josh back because, first and foremost, he gives you 90 minutes of pure effort and, with that, comes quality.

"He's been champing at the bit for ages and been desperate to get involved for a long time. He's had to be held back by the manager and physio and, rightly so, because the last thing we want is to have him out for another couple of months.

"But those minutes under the belt will have done him good and we will only see better things from him now. It was a great ball in from him for the first goal and, after the short corner, Russ (Penn) put the second one on a plate for me, so I couldn't miss."

Lowe also felt that Saturday's stunning comeback, in which he was joined on the scoresheet by Jake Hyde during a whirlwind ten-minute spell, proved the players have a passion for the club that might have been questioned by their supporters in recent times.

"We were absolutely delighted to give the club and fans something to be happy and cheer about after an abject performance in the Cup game at Wimbledon," he said. "In the second half, we rolled our sleeves up and showed people we do care and want to do well for this club.

"It was brilliant to score the goals in front of our fans and we were talking about that in the changing room afterwards. It was a massive win in a big game because we are at the wrong end of the table and they were rock bottom so, hopefully, we can kick on now.

"We just need to find that consistency to play at a high level for 90 minutes and not just 45. The sooner we do that the better."

The Minstermen are now preparing for their next test at sixth-placed Plymouth on Saturday with Lowe saying: "Plymouth are flying and doing well, so it will be a tough game and we need to make sure we play how we can do, but we will go there confident after Saturday's second-half performance."