86th minute winner against Macclesfield on Saturday took his season tally to seven.

Now he is hoping sixth-placed Manchester City will do likewise and soon grab the top spot in the division as they push for a quick return to the First Division.

The Bermudian striker will be looking to add to that tally tonight when City travel to the Midlands to play Premier League team Derby in the first leg of their second round tie in the League Cup.

"We're in the competition and the fact that we're there we're going to give it our best,'' said Goater, noting that promotion remains the club's priority.

"We want to go there and give a good account of ourselves and hopefully bring them back on the return leg and finish the job.'' City are in the Second Division for the first time in their history, so to do well against a Premier League team would give them a tremendous boost.

"We'll be looking to gauge ourselves and see how good we are,'' said Goater.

"We've had one or two wins in the division which is what is expected, but to come up against Premiership opposition we can see how far we've come from the end of last season.'' Despite dropping back into the Second Division with City while the club he left, Bristol City, got promotion into the First Division, Goater has no regrets about the move to Manchester. In fact, with a four-year contract, he has laid down roots by purchasing a home in the city which he will move into this weekend.

"Every game we play there is something like 25,000 and the expectation is so much greater than at Bristol City,'' he explained.

"I had been there two years and had a good time and could have stayed there many years and been happy. But players who have been at a club so many years their form starts to drop, so to have this challenge again keeps my on my toes, so to speak. If the goals aren't coming, they'll go and buy.'' Goater is hoping the move to his own house will help improve his form. "It's been so hectic with hotels and rented accommodations, it really unsettled me,'' he disclosed. "When I move into the place on Friday, hopefully we'll be settled there.

"At 28 it was a long term contract that I was interested in and now I would like to secure myself in every way. I'm only about 20 minutes from the club and I'm not a travelling person either.'' After moves to Rotherham, Bristol and now back to Manchester for the second time, Goater is certainly finding his way around England. Opposing defenders are well aware of him, too, as he has again become a marked man in the Second Division.

"Teams are definitely aware of me,'' he acknowledges. "I've always been around the 25-goal mark so that's the target I've set for myself.'' Indications are City will be battling for one of the two automatic promotion spots with Kyle Lightbourne's Stoke City, who lead the division, and the team Lightbourne spent a loan period with last season, Fulham.

"I think it will be Manchester City, Fulham and Stoke,'' said Lightbourne, who has reclaimed a starting place in the team and responded with two goals.

"I'm happy with the way I've been playing. In the last three matches I've felt sharp.

"Obviously it's early days but it was good for us to have a good start. Out of the three teams I expect at least one of them to get automatic promotion.

All three teams are capable of going undefeated for six, seven or 10 games.

"A lot of teams, even Walsall, have done quite well. I think Fulham, Man.

City and ourselves have the depth in the squad that if we get a few injuries or a loss of form we have the players to come in and do the same type of job.

The other teams that are up there now can't afford to get any injuries.'' Stoke are out of the League Cup, which means they don't have any distractions to their promotion aspirations. Like City, they were relegated last season.

"I've seen it happen so many times, teams going well in the league, than have a good cup run and either get suspensions or injuries in those cup games. The longer you are in those competitions, you are missing out on league games and than you are playing catch up.'' Manchester City are at home to Chesterfield on Saturday while Stoke are away to Wrexham.