Goater and Kyle Lightbourne over the weekend.

Goater, Rotherham's leading marksman, became the top scorer in the Second Division when he netted twice away to Rochdale to take his tally for the season to 15.

However, his effort came in a losing cause as Rotherham went down 5-3, having trailed 4-0 before Goater scored the first of his two goals from the penalty spot in the 72nd minute. He netted again nine minutes later.

Goater is now halfway towards his target of 30 goals for the season -- with the season itself still six weeks away from the halfway mark. He tallied 25 goals last season.

Lightbourne did not score but at least Walsall advanced through to the next round of the competition, thanks to a 3-1 away win over Burnley on Friday night. Walsall are now away to Torquay, bottom of the Third Division, on December 2.

"It's a good draw for us,'' said Lightbourne yesterday. "Hopefully we can turn them over and draw a big club like last year when we played Leeds. We drew the first game and they beat us in the replay.'' Lightbourne suffered a groin strain in the match, an injury he picked up in the first half and which forced him out of the game late in the second half.

And after treatment for the injury over the weekend, he managed to train on Monday and is confident of being in the team for Saturday's away match against second-from-bottom Brighton.

The lanky Bermudian striker enjoyed a splendid performance a week ago when he netted four of Walsall's goals in a 5-0 Autoglass Trophy win over Wycombe Wanderers to take his season tally in league and cup games to eight.

Lightbourne completed a first half hat-trick in the space of nine minutes early in the match, the first goal coming in the 13th minute and the fourth towards the end of the half.

"It's been a slow start but I've been playing well,'' Lightbourne explained.

"I just haven't been scoring goals. Hopefully now I can start putting them in on a regular basis.

"Even on Friday I had one cleared off the line, but that's the way it goes.

We played well on Friday, probably our best performance of the season.'' Walsall are sitting in the bottom half of the table, too close for comfort to the relegation zone. However, Lightbourne believes the last two performances have boosted confidence.

"Everybody at the club is feeling quite good about the way things are going,'' said Lightbourne.

"On Saturday we play Brighton and they are struggling as well. We play away to them and hopefully we can get a good result.'' Shawn Goater