Shaun Goater knows only hard work will see Manchester City pull away from the Premiership drop zone.

Goater partnered Nicolas Anelka up front during Saturday's 2-0 away victory against Birmingham City - their first win on opposing territory all season.

But the Bermudian knows the commitment shown at St.Andrews will have to be reproduced on a regular basis if the side are not to struggle as the term progresses.

Chinese defender Sun Jihai and Anelka netted the goals that earned the three points at the weekend, Goater playing until the very last minute when, with the game won, he made way for Darren Huckerby.

The win puts City in 16th place on 11 points from 11 games. Charlton and West Brom follow on ten with Sunderland on eight and Bolton Wanderers bottom on seven.

City's position is a far cry from manager Kevin Keegan's target of finishing in the top six but at least they now have something to build on.

"It is true that we are not where we want to be and we have got to work hard to make sure we get out of the position we are in," Goater said. "But all the players believe we have got enough quality here to start getting results and hopefully we won't be in this situation for much longer.

"We'll certainly be doing everything we can to get out of it."

Goater said the players and management met last week to discuss the situation.

"The players talked about any problems they might have on the pitch at certain times and we are all going to work collectively to get ourselves going again," he said.

"The important thing is for us to take care of ourselves and let other teams worry about us, but we know that we will have to get on top of our own game soon."

Prior to Saturday's game, the run of results bore an alarming similarity to a sequence recorded under former boss Joe Royle's stewardship the last time City were in the top flight.

But Goater believes this season's team has more quality than the one that suffered the indignity of relegation.

"This is certainly a better side both technically and as a whole compared to the one that got relegated two years ago," he said. "When the gaffer was talking at the beginning of the season that we could possibly get into the top six maybe some of us didn't believe it at first.

"But when we started looking at the players who were in the dressing room we changed our minds.

"It might be difficult to get into the top six now but we are still confident of getting into a mid-table spot."

City face West Brom on Saturday before the biggest game of the season so far a week later - a home derby with Manchester United, the team where Goater started his career.

Kyle Lightbourne found the back of the net for the fourth time this season on Saturday to take his league tally to 99 goals since moving to England.

However, it turned out to be in a losing cause as Macclesfield were beaten 2-1 by local rivals Bury.

Lightbourne, Macclesfield's top scorer in the league, volleyed home an equaliser after 52 minutes but Bury grabbed the winner with six minutes remaining.

Macclesfield, who play Oxford United at home tomorrow night, are in 18th position out of 24 teams in Division Three and have 17 points from 15 games.

David Bascome and the Harrisburg Heat got one over local rivals the Baltimore Blast at the weekend with a 9-8 victory in the Major Indoor Soccer League.

The match was the Heat's first in two weeks and moves them to 2-2 on the season.