The fact that the Goat was in cattle class says a lot about a man who has reached the very pinnacle of UK football but doesn?t act like it.

Returning home for just a couple of days to deal with some family business, Goater took his place among the other economy passengers, slept restlessly, went over his coaching notes and generally acted like any other passenger.

Plenty of British Airways staff showed their footballing knowledge but unlimited ?hello/good morning/have a pleasant flight Mr. Goater?s do not equal an upgrade and that?s fine by the Southend striker.

?I?ve never been all that fussed about being a professional footballer and being treated like one,? said Goater, who spent the first two-and-a-half hours of his transatlantic journey being interviewed by The Royal Gazette and the rest reading or sleeping ? maybe not the best decision considering he then drove straight to training from the airport.

?I?m just someone who plays football, I?m nobody special. You?re more likely to get an upgrade than me!? laughed the Goat, who is every bit the footballing Mr. Nice Guy despite his myriad of Premiership goals and his talismanic status with anyone who ever watched him at Man City.

While British football has been rocked by rapes, drunken idiocy and general self-indulgent stupidity, not to mention ridiculous greed and the breeding of cash-backed youthful arrogance, Goater has remained very much the Bermuda-boy-come-good, untainted by his income nor his fame.

So much so that Goater gave the answer that everyone knows is the right one to the question ?Do you think footballers get paid too much just for playing football? ? and he meant it.

There was no sense of irony nor any hint of an attempt to ingratiate himself with the public when he said an emphatic: ?Of course we do.?

?We get paid far too much for doing something that we love,? said an earnest Goater.

?Don?t get me wrong, I?m not offering to give the money back, but the wages are pretty crazy and seem to be getting even more so.

?I think it?s quite ridiculous that players can earn so much just for playing football, something everyone else does because they love it.

?I am very grateful for the life I have had because of football but if I had not been a professional I would still have kept playing.

?Some of these guys are earning millions but are they the ones that really deserve it? What about the nurses and the teachers, they get paid peanuts but you could certainly say they deserve the money more for what they do.

?But whether it?s right or not, I have had a lot from football, it has allowed me to see the best of life and I will always be grateful for that and encourage others to strive for it.?

It is clear that Goater has seen a lot in football, both with his Pan-Concacaf adventures for Bermuda and his Premiership adventures, which makes his decision to keep playing perhaps a strange one.

As became very apparent last weekend, Vale Park is not Old Trafford, nor is Roots Hall Maine Road or the Bescott Stadium Highbury.

So why would a player who has scaled the heights keep playing at what many would regard as the depths? Particularly when he admits he is ?no longer playing for the money?.

?I came very close to retiring after my time at Reading,? continued Goater, whose Madejski Stadium nightmares will be examined in tomorrow?s second instalment of the The Great Plane Interview.

?To be honest, no, I?m not doing this for the money anymore. I am doing this for pretty much one reason ? I still love playing football.

?It is a drop in standard and there?s no point in pretending it?s not and I made sure I picked my club very carefully.

?There are certain things I wanted for my last year. I wanted first team football but not to play every game, I wanted a young, ambitious club and I wanted a manager I can talk to and fans I can get along with.

?All of those things are at Southend. I am very happy playing my football with this club. I have a great relationship with the manager (who is only four years older than the Goat) and with my other team-mates.

?I have also been well accepted by the fans, they have been great and I am grateful to them for the way they have treated me since I arrived.

?At Reading a lot of the time people just gave me the ball and it was like ?right, you?re the man, you go and do it? but that is not my game as they soon realised and that is not how I play.

?Here at Southend there is none of that. We are a team, pulling together, trying to do the same things. We have a good squad and a healthy approach to the game and I think we are going to have a good season.

?We are there or thereabouts at the moment and if we can just get back to winning ways soon then I think we can definitely think about being involved come play-offs time.?

Goater is not the only former Premiership man trying to extend his footballing shelf life in League One, and bumping into others such as Paul Merson, Steve Staunton and Jason McAteer fills him with a shared sense of camaraderie and no small amount of joy.

?Every time I see them on the pitch I think one thing ? there?s someone else who loves their football,? he said with a smile.

?I?m not playing because I need the money anymore and I am sure they are not either. We are playing because we love the game and we know that if we stopped we would regret it.

?I?d always said that I?d stop at a decent level but I wasn?t ready to give up my football.

?My family come first now and so I would only play if it was right for them and for me but I knew that it wasn?t time to give up yet.?

He spent a torturous few months at Reading, perennially left on the bench and was on the verge of hanging up his big boots.

But phone calls to former pros Kyle Lightbourne and Cyrille Regis ? with whom Goater once promoted Subbuteo ? helped him realise that he would have been miserable had he stopped with mileage still left in his legs.

So Shrimpers boss Steve Tilson?s calls were returned and Goater stayed on for more one year of goalscoring ? and possibly beyond?

?I was scoring every week when I was asked if I would stay on and I said that if things were like this, I would,? said Goater with an enthusiasm that would suggest he really doesn?t want to give it all up.

?But it is not that simple. Southend have to want me for another year and I have to want them.

?I don?t think there is much to gain from talking about it all now. Let?s wait until nearer the end of the season and we?ll see how my creaking bones are and whether they still want me in their side.?

In tomorrow?s Part Two: Misery in Reading.