Kyle Lightbourne netted twice to break a scoring slump that lasted two months as promotion seeking Walsall beat Gillingham 3-1 away from home on Saturday to remain in third place in the Third Division.

Lightbourne, without a goal since December 27 when his two goals in a 4-0 win over Barnet lifted Walsall into third place, repaid manager Chris Nicholl for the faith shown in him during the bad patch by scoring twice in the second half.

"I'm glad he's stuck by me,'' said Lightbourne. "I've been making a few goals and doing my other part of the game but the goals just dried up for a bit.

"Hopefully I can get back to scoring regular. He said hang in there, get your shots on target and your luck will change.'' Despite the slump Lightbourne is still just two goals behind the top scorer in the division. He failed to find the net in last night's match against Hartlepool which Walsall won 4-1 to move to within a point of second-placed Chesterfield and with three games in hand.

"My aim right now is to try to be the top scorer in my division and to get Walsall promoted. If anything else happens between now and the end of the season it's obviously a bonus.

"It's just a matter of getting that feeling back. I knew sooner or later it would come. The important thing was that I wasn't playing bad, it was just a matter of time before the ball went into the back of the net.'' The lanky Bermudian opened the scoring in the 52nd minute before hitting a second four minutes later to take his tally for the season to 18. In the process he also impressed some scouts who were reportedly at the match.

Lightbourne, however, isn't paying too much attention to that kind of talk.

"No I don't know much about that, I'm just trying to concentrate on my game,'' he conceded. "It's been basically all season that you hear that scouts are around.

"It's just a matter of trying to be consistent because they don't look at you for just one or two games, they look at you over a season and decide like that. Then again, you get some clubs that might take the chance on you, it's all about opinions, really.'' Even if a transfer does not materialise Lightbourne looks like playing in a higher division next season as his goals have put Walsall in contention for promotion.

For the next few weeks Walsall will play two games a week as they play their games in hand. Depending on how they do in those matches they could even challenge runaway leaders Carlisle for the top spot. Walsall play Chesterfield on Saturday and then the following Saturday take on the leaders, the first match at home and the next away to Carlisle.

"Right now we're trying to concentrate on Chesterfield and if we win tonight and that game we would go two points ahead of them with three games in hand,'' said Lightbourne prior to last night's match.

"That's what we're trying to do, get in front of them with games in hand.'' Bermudian Shawn Goater is finding the net regularly again after a bad spell.

He helped ease Rotherham's relegation worries by scoring the game's only goal in the 38th minute as Rotherham beat struggling Cambridge United 1-0 last night. It was Goater's 21st goal of the season.

KYLE LIGHTBOURNE -- "The goals just dried up a bit.''