By Lawrence Trott Shawn Goater scored one of the most memorable goals of his career last night as Manchester City booked a trip to the famous Wembley Stadium at the end of the month.

City's top scorer netted his 21st goal of the season with, of all things, his chest, in the 27th minute, as the home team won their Second Division promotion play-off semi-final, second leg tie against Wigan 1-0 to take the tie 2-1 on aggregate.

Amid a noisy atmosphere created by the 31,000 crowd, City hung onto that slim lead in a tense second half and when the referee's final whistle blew, thousands of City fans swarmed on to the pitch to celebrate.

City will meet Gillingham, who beat Preston North End on the same 2-1 aggregate, in the final on May 30 when Goater plays at Wembley for the second time in three years. The winner gains promotion to the First Division.

"I'm pleased, I played my part in getting us to Wembley; now hopefully there's another story in there with Shawn Goater's name on it,'' said the City hero when contacted at home afterwards.

"That would make a great season for me. I set a target of 25 and I've been unable to reach that but it can still be a great day and a great ending to it all.

"You couldn't write it better if I was to go to Wembley and score one or two! "I'm definitely looking forward to it. I had one good time there and now I'm there again. The only thing I will tell the other players, from what I was told on my first occasion there, is to go there and enjoy it.'' Scoring would be a memorable way to mark his second appearance at Wembley, something he failed to do before. In the meantime he'll savour last night's winner.

Wigan's five-man defence was penetrated when Michael Brown's cross from the right evaded everybody at the near post and was met by Goater who leaned forward to chest the ball low to goalkeeper Roy Carroll's right from about three yards.

"The ball was whipped in real low and I ran from behind the defender to get in front of him and the ball came off the surface real quick and I couldn't get my head there,'' explained Goater.

Carroll got a hand to the ball but could not prevent it from creeping over the line. Wigan players appealed for hand-ball against Goater but referee Terry Heilbron's decision was supported by TV replays.

The second half saw a very different Wigan as they threw on burly striker Graeme Jones and then attacking midfielder Ian Kilford and left three men up front in a bid to pull back the goal.

Wigan went for broke with 15 minutes left as winger David Lee was brought on to give them four up front.

Jones had a header saved and when City didn't learn from that the big striker went even closer with five minutes remaining when his header rattled the bar from Kevin Sharp's free kick.

City substitute Gareth Taylor could have settled it with three minutes to go when Paul Dickov put him clear, but his tentative, half-hit shot let Wigan off.

Because of the pitch invasion at the end the City players were not able to take a planned lap of honour around the pitch afterwards to thank the fans for their support for the season. And their own celebrations were rather subdued afterwards, knowing that there is still another important game to be played.

"It was excitement -- but not over the top,'' Goater explained.

"The players were thinking `let's not get too carried away.'' When Goater played at Wembley with Rotherham United in the Auto Windscreens Shield final in 1996 a crowd of 37,000 watched the match with Shrewsbury. That match won't come close to comparing with the play-off final, with City likely to take that many of their own supporters down to London.

"I assume we'll have somewhere around 40,000,'' he estimated.

"The fans haven't had anything to cheer for some years. I'm looking forward to it, perhaps I'll be a little more controlled in this game than I was in the Rotherham game.''