England...but it was one of his last as an amateur that remains closest to his heart.

The date was October 18, 1992, the venue National Stadium, the occasion Bermuda's first match in the second round of World Cup qualifying against El Salvador.

The spectacular winning goal Lightbourne scored that day lifted Bermuda's football to heights seldom seen before as the Island celebrated a 1-0 win.

"It's still very fresh in my memory,'' said Lightbourne yesterday as he prepared to join the Bermuda team in the British Virgin Islands this weekend for their first round, first leg qualifier.

"People ask me about the goal that sticks out in my memory and this is the first one that comes to my mind.'' Lightbourne relives the move down the left side: "Neil Paynter got injured keeping the ball in play, Voorhees Astwood crossed it and I headed it in from quite a distance out,'' Lightbourne recalled.

"That's why it sticks out in my memory so well. It was like a bullet off my head.'' Spectators, including then Premier Sir John Swan who ran onto the pitch, couldn't contain themselves as a 5,000 crowd erupted.

It is such scenes that Lightbourne and the rest of the Bermuda team want to relive as the country enter the World Cup qualifying for the first time since that campaign.

"Hopefully those days will come back for Bermuda,'' said the Stoke City striker.

"It was a good atmosphere and the country was pulling in one direction. I know it's a long time since that happened but we're a small knit community and I don't see why we can't get it going again.'' In the past few years a number of West Indian players have found their way into the English League and it is because of that that teams in the region have become stronger. Even the British Virgin Islands shouldn't be taken lightly, Lightbourne warned.

"I know that they have two English guys training them and I would imagine they are bringing with them the English style,'' said Lightbourne.

"Once the World Cup campaign gets going you will see the teams in the Caribbean bringing players over from England. I'm really looking forward to this game, it's starting to get very intesting for teams in the Caribbean.'' Added Lightbourne: "One of my good mates, Martin O'Connor, who was captain of Walsall and is now captain of Birmingham City, played for the Cayman Islands against Jamaica two weeks ago.

"Another guy is Jason Roberts of Bristol Rovers, the joint top scorer in the Second Division, who I think is playing for one of the islands as well. The standard of play will become higher, so there are a couple of teams in there that we will want to avoid.'' Technical director Clyde Best and head coach Robert Calderon will be relying on strikers Lightbourne and Shaun Goater for goals in the first leg. A good result for Bermuda could allow the pair to miss the return leg in two weeks' time and be with their clubs.

And while Goater, with his 23 goals for Manchester City, is the player the BVI will be most wary of, Lightbourne is looking to give himself a scoring boost after only a modest season.

In fact, goals have been hard to come by for Lightbourne in the last two seasons since his 76 strikes in three seasons at Walsall earned him a dream move to Coventry City of the Premiership in February, 1998.

"I can go back to my Walsall days when I was scoring goals regularly, but I wasn't playing as well as I'm playing now,'' Lightbourne pointed out.

"I'm really happy with my form but the most disappointing thing is I haven't been scoring the goals. I've created a lot of goals for other players and put in some good performances.

"It would be nice to get on the scoresheet and then get back here (England) and score goals.'' Kyle inspired From Page 13 Lightbourne witnessed crowd trouble on Saturday in the away match against Wigan as a tribute was paid to Sir Stanley Matthews, one of the greatest footballers ever, who died last week.

A minute's silence was observed for the former Stoke City great at the start of the game, but jeering by Wigan fans angered the Stoke supporters and fighting broke out among the rival fans.

Stoke had the last laugh with a 2-1 win.

"There were a few Wigan fans who didn't honour it and some Stoke fans were upset about that,'' explained Lightbourne. "That's what sparked it off.

"He (Matthews) was one of the best players England have ever produced, and played league football up to the age of 50. He did a lot for the Stoke community and everybody loved him, not just in Stoke but in all of England.'' See Sports Mailbox, Page 16.

Flashback: David Bascome, Shaun Goater and Kyle Lightbourne celebrate World Cup success in 1992 with coach Gary Darrell. All three will play in Bermuda's World Cup opener in BVI this Sunday.