tonight's fourth round League Cup match with First Division side Arsenal -- the team he supported as a youngster.

The lanky 24-year-old, who made his first two appearances for the club as a sub, had his first start on Saturday in the 3-1 away win over Torquay United, though he was eventually replaced in the 70th minute.

"The pace was fast but I wasn't playing badly,'' Lightbourne said last night.

"I thought I did well, I had two chances that the goalkeeper saved.

From the first one we got our first goal, when the goalkeeper got his fingers to it and a defender cleared it off the line for a corner from which we scored.'' The originally scheduled match with Arsenal was postponed because of a frozen pitch on December 23. And though it was snowing yesterday the game will go ahead.

"In Torquay it wasn't that cold and I played without gloves,'' Lightbourne explained. "It's okay once you get warmed up. Tomorrow night I'll have my gloves on because it's colder up here.'' A sell-out crowd of 8,000 will cram into Scarborough's small ground to see if the local team can produce another giant-killing act in the cup. Last year Arsenal lost to bottom division team Wrexham in the FA Cup.

Lightbourne obviously rates this match as one of the biggest in his career.

"Next to the World Cup,'' he said.

"Things could change real quick for me if I have a good game. There are definitely going to be a lot of scouts there, a lot of people around looking, so it's important to give a good performance on the night.''