City to their fifth straight home win and consolidate their lead at the top of the English First Division on Saturday.

City beat Blackburn Rovers 2-0 with the goals coming in the 38th and 83rd minutes through Richard Edghill and a Jeff Whitley header. And though Goater was substituted in the 81st minute, the top scorer is expected to reclaim his spot for tomorrow night's top-of-the-table clash against second-placed Ipswich.

Manager Joe Royle said on the City Website that Goater's substitution was more as a precaution as there was a chance of a recurrance of the hamstring injury which kept him out for two games.

"Shaun was tired. He has not done an awful lot of team training and it has just taken the edge off his fitness at the moment,'' said Royle.

"When a player gets tired that's when you can get a recurrance of a hamstring injury. There was no point in taking any chances.'' City won the match before a home crowd of 33,000, their biggest since their stadium was converted to an all-seater. They hold a three-point lead over Ipswich, Charlton and Fulham but have played one more game than Ipswich and Fulham and two more than Charlton.

Ipswich were able to climb to second after Charlton, Fulham and Birmingham all failed to win on the weekend.

City played Ipswich in their corresponding fixture exactly a month ago when they went down 2-1, so they will be looking for revenge.