If there were two people whom Shaun Goater could count on to be at Roots Hall on Saturday for his final professional match it was Kyle and Rosemarie Lightbourne.

They go way back do the Goaters and Lightbournes. Back to the early 1990s when, as players, Shaun and Kyle kept each other going when times were hard in the lower divisions of the English League.

Thousands of miles away from home the families had each other to call on and stuck together through the good times and bad times.

The Lightbournes were there when Goater made a historic appearance at Wembley with Rotherham in the Auto Windscreens Shield final against Shrewsbury which they won 2-1. They were there again one last time as Goater brought the curtain down on a 17-year professional career against one of his former clubs Bristol City at Roots Hall.

?We weren?t close friends at the junior level (in Bermuda) but once we started playing at the senior level we became closer,? recalled Lightbourne, who got his chance in England about four years after Shaun, who was already at Rotherham when Lightbourne joined Scarborough in 1992.

?Shaun had one or two years before he left to go to England, playing senior football for North Village and our friendship developed from there. After going to England it only became stronger.?

Both the Goaters and Lightbournes have two girls and each are godparents for the other?s children.

?We needed one another to be there when times were tough,? said Lightbourne, who retired two years ago and is now coach of the national team.

For about three years while in the same division they battled to outdo each other in the scoring charts but the rivalry never affected the friendship which grew even stronger.

?Once Shaun established himself at Rotherham and Bristol City and I established myself at Walsall we did have bets for something like three seasons in a row, over who is going to score the most goals and we ended up tied all three seasons,? Lightbourne recalled.

?In the lower leagues we were players who were producing on a regular basis. Eventually we both got our opportunity to play at a higher level.?

Though Goater had more success as a Premiership player with Manchester City, it was Lightbourne who got there first when, after a couple of high scoring seasons at Walsall, Coventry snapped him up.

?It didn?t have the impact that Shaun had (at City), but I guess it all depends on what club you go to,? said Lightbourne with no hint of jealously.

?For myself, I went to Coventry and they were looking for a player who could come and fill in when Dion Dublin and Darren Huckerby were injured. Coming from Walsall I was so used to playing week in and week out and it was a different role they were asking me to play. I was 28, 29 at that stage and that wasn?t the role I wanted to play.?

Goater made a career changing move in 1998 when he left First Division-bound Bristol City for Manchester City who, weeks later, were relegated to the Second Division for the first time in their history.

His 19 goals for Bristol City up to the March transfer put them on course for promotion, while the player himself went into the First Division with Manchester City but failed to keep them up.

?He went to Man City when they were on the decline and he will admit it took him a while to win the fans over,? said Lightbourne.

?Once he was able to score the goals that won them back to back promotions he went from strength to strength, whereas I was at Stoke where, as a club, we weren?t progressing and as a player I was not really progressing.

?Up until I left Walsall and he left Bristol City our records were almost identical as far as scoring goals. But he?s done well and kept going. It?s not an easy thing to do year in and year out, consistently scoring over 20 goals a season.?

Lightbourne estimates he scored somewhere in the region of 140 goals for several clubs while Goater netted just over 100 for Manchester City alone in four seasons there.

Goater?s career eventually hit a rocky patch at Manchester City and then Reading where, first, Kevin Keegan then Steve Coppell, kept him on the bench for long periods.

Keegan, who found Goater at City when he replaced Joe Royle as manager, preferred his own signings like Nicholas Anelka and Robbie Fowler, while Coppell chose to leave Goater out of the team despite finishing top scorer the previous season. An additional payment to Manchester City based on a certain amount of appearances by Goater in the Reading team appeared to be the reason behind Coppell?s cold shoulder treatment.

?For someone to come from Bermuda and achieve what Shaun achieved a lot of Bermudians will take lightly, but his name will go on forever in the history of Manchester City,? Lightbourne believes. ?They will always remember Shaun.

?Some people may forget he played for Reading because he didn?t have that same sort of impact. He was coming to the end of his career there while at Mancester City he had the desire to prove to everybody that was where he belonged.?

Even before moving to Southend last summer Goater knew the end was near. As he contemplated retirement he sought the advice from his good friend.

?He asked me and I said ?you want to go out on a good note, if you want to play one more season then make up your mind and really go for it?,? Lightbourne revealed.

?I said to him ?you have to be honest with yourself and ask is this what I really want to do, especially living in Reading and travelling to Southend?. I told him to think of all the negative sides of football that as a professional you have to deal with. And if you come out with the answer being yes then continue on and have one more year.

?He had one year on his contract left at Reading and could have stayed at Reading but he wanted to play football and I told him to weigh up the options from other clubs.?