Striker Kyle Lightbourne scored one of Walsall's goals in Saturday's 2-0 win over West Brom in a pre-season friendly, and now he's hoping to get off to a flying start when the league campaign in England begins in earnest on Saturday.

Following a slow start last season Bermudian Lightbourne failed to reach his target of 30 goals, although he had no complaints about his final tally of 24.

Now he's aiming for the 30 mark again and hopes to start the season on the right foot against Shawn Goater's former team, Rotherham United, who travel to Walsall.

"Rotherham have signed six or seven new players so I don't know how they are gelling,'' said Lightbourne yesterday.

"Normally anything over 20 is a good season but I would like to get close to 30. I feel I can reach the 30 mark.'' Walsall have sold winger Scott Houghton and midfielder and captain Martin O'Connor and though they have not made any signings, the club are aiming to improve on last season's mid-table finish in the Second Division.

They have done well in friendly games played over the last couple of weeks against teams from both the Premier League and First Division.

"We haven't bought any new players as yet but we were supposed to sign a player from Argentina who was on trial and that fell through,'' explained Lightbourne.

"Now there's a German lad, a left-sided midfielder, who we were having talks with today.'' Otherwise the club will rely on players already at Walsall, including a couple of promising young strikers, teenager Clyde Platt, who recently finished his apprenticeship and is in his first year as a pro, and Michael Rickards who is a second year apprentice. Both have been involved in the friendly games.

The team will be adopting a new system this season where, instead of using wingers, they will play with two strikers and another player behind the front pair. Martin Butler will be Lightbourne's strike partner while player-coach Kevin Wilson will play "in the hole'' behind the frontrunners.

"We'll be basically playing with three strikers and this will probably suit us better on our own pitch which is not very big,'' said Lightbourne, the team's top scorer last season.

"Because of that we tend to do better away from home on bigger pitches when we play with the wide men.'' Three of the recent friendly matches were against other teams in the Midlands, Aston Villa, Birmingham and West Brom. They lost to Villa 2-0, drew 1-1 with Birmingham and then beat West Brom as Lightbourne played his first full match since recent groin surgery.

"Because of the long layoff over the summer scar tissue was building up and it was just a matter of working it off,'' said Lightbourne of the injury he suffered last season.

"A lot of players who get this operation normally come right back and play so the scar tissue doesn't build up. "I didn't train as hard as the rest of the team. I was only playing half a match. I played about 70 minutes against Birmingham and the whole game on Saturday against West Brom.

"I'm feeling pretty good right now. I'm going into the season with a lot of confidence. I've had a break, my mind is in order and I'm geared up for the season.'' KYLE LIGHTBOURNE -- scored in Saturday's 2-0 win over West Brom.