Shaun Goater, the leading scorer in British football, has admitted that he feared for his place in the Manchester City starting line-up going into the New Year's Day fixture away to Sheffield United.

Goater ended a four-match drought by scoring his 24th goal of the season 10 minutes into the second half of a convincing 3-1 win at Bramall Lane, which catapulted City to the top of the English First Division.

Manager Kevin Keegan gave the Bermudian a vote of confidence after he played well in the 5-1 victory over Burnley, then the division leaders, in which Paulo Wanchope bagged a hat-trick and Darren Huckerby continued his recent scoring run as a second-half replacement for Goater. But the 31-year-old was fearful of a place on the substitutes' bench nonetheless.

"I feared the game against Sheffield United was my last chance and thought that I wasn't going to start," Goater told the club's official website this week. "With the players we have around us we are always going to create chances. I just try and get myself there. Sometimes I miss one or two or the `keeper makes a couple of saves, but I just try to keep going."

Goater's luck in front of the posts took a turn for the worse after he scored the only goal in the 2-1 defeat away to Crystal Palace on December 8. He was kept in check when City beat promotion rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-0 on December 11 and Bradford City 3-1 five days later, but after squandering a string of chances in the scoreless draw at home with West Bromwich Albion, the lanky striker entered into a crisis of confidence.

"I don't want to miss a game because of the form our strikers are in," Goater added. "You can see the other two (Wanchope and Huckerby) scoring a couple each in a game and then the gaffer (Keegan) would have a headache. But whatever he decides you just have to go along with it. I was delighted to get back on the scoresheet and am now looking forward to the (FA Cup) game against Swindon."

Keegan, in his first season back in management after sensationally walking out on the England job last year, was full of praise for Goater after the Burnley match and intimated that, with players the quality of Ali Bernabia and Eyal Berkovic pulling the strings from midfield, he was content that the goals were shared between his front men - as long as there were a heap of them.

When City host Swindon, who are struggling to reach mediocrity in the Second Division, in the third round of the FA Cup tomorrow, Goater and his partners can fully expect such a goal feast.

"The goal (against Sheffield United) was important for my confidence," Goater said. "As a striker you would rather score week in, week out rather than score three and not get any for five or six games."

Kyle Lightbourne, meanwhile, will be hoping to make a return to the Macclesfield Town line-up for Sunday's plum FA Cup tie at home to West Ham United of the Premiership.

The forward missed most of last month with an ankle problem, but was reinjured in his comeback match against Shrewsbury Town just before Christmas and did not figure in the Silkmen's holiday season schedule.

Macclesfield stand to gain more than ?300,000 in television revenue, radio fees and gate receipts from the West Ham match and, after having their most recent Third Division match postponed due to the wintry conditions that accounted for a sizeable portion of the British fixture list last weekend, paid a ?12,000 insurance premium yesterday to protect against the loss of such a windfall.