in the English First Division with Manchester City on Tuesday night, scoring a late winner against Premiership team Liverpool in a friendly.

Goater hit the winner in the 2-1 victory which came in front of a 25,000 crowd at City's Maine Road ground. Liverpool were fielding some of their new signings but found City a good test.

"It was a fairly even match, although they might say they didn't have (Jamie) Redknapp, (Robbie) Fowler and (Michael) Owen playing,'' said Goater.

"They bought a few players this summer and they had a fairly decent team out.'' The match was the final friendly for City before they open their season on Sunday at home to Wolverhampton. Sky TV will televise the sold-out match at Maine Road. Already season-ticket sales have soared by 50 per cent to 21,000.

Goater played his first full game in pre-season at his former club, Bristol City, where Manchester City lost 1-0 to an own goal. They started their sequence of friendlies with a 2-1 loss to Bury, before beating Halifax 2-0, Stockport 2-1 and then Liverpool.

Liverpool took the lead in the 41st minute through David Thompson before City stormed back after the break to claim a morale boosting victory.

Midfielder Kevin Horlock equalised from the penalty spot and it stayed that way until Goater headed home the winner three minutes from time from a Danny Granville cross.

City have made two signings, picking up left winger Mark Kennedy from Wimbledon and Granville, a left back, from Leeds on three months' loan.

"They are two quality players and the last two games they have played there have been a number of crosses from the left side,'' said Goater.

"We started off a bit slow, but by the end of the pre-season we started to make up for it and the confidence started to rise again.'' City are hoping they can go the same way as Watford and enjoy promotion for the second straight season. The club have Premiership ambitions, chairman David Bernstein said.

"Everything is in place for this club to continue progressing,'' said Bernstein.

"We will back the manager with the necessary funds where possible because our supporters deserve nothing but the best.'' The First Division contains a number of teams with Premiership aspirations, from relegated Blackburn, Charlton and Nottingham Forest to Ipswich, Sheffield United, Birmingham, Bolton, Wolves, Norwich and Fulham, the Second Division champions last season.

"It's every team's intentions at the beginning of the season, especially the ones who bought one or two players, and we're no different,'' said Goater looking forward to starting a season in the First Division for the first time in his career.

"I can see this is a big step. I waited a long time to be in this division and the final goal is to be in the Premiership. I've got an opportunity to make a name for myself in Division One and I'm looking forward to it.'' City will meet the top teams outside the Premiership as they battle for one of the promotion spots.

"I'm sure Blackburn will be the favourites to go right back up, and then you have Nottingham Forest, Charlton, Sheffield United, Birmingham, Wolves, ourselves,'' said Goater.

"Fulham have one or two new players -- Stan Collymore on a three-month loan, Lee Clarke from Sunderland -- so they have obviously spent a bit of money to boost their squad.

"It's important that we get off to a good start. In the first month we could really make a statement that we're going to challenge because there are a lot of big teams that we're playing.''