Ambitious Wigan Athletic have emerged as frontrunners in the race for Shaun Goater's signature.

Goater (33) is set to leave Manchester City at the end of the season after five years at Maine Road and has openly said he would be happy to take the drop from the Premiership into Division One.

The Bermudian striker's first team chances have been curtailed following boss Kevin Keegan's purchase of Robbie Fowler from Leeds in January. And after sitting on the bench for much of the latter part of the season he decided last week that the time had come to move on.

The Latics have just been promoted to Division One as champions of Division Two and have a multi-millionaire chairman in sports superstore owner Dave Whelan capable of bankrolling such a transfer.

If Goater was to make the short hop across Lancashire to Wigan, however, he would have to bury the hatchet with the club's fans who still have not forgiven him for scoring a controversial goal against them in the 1999 play-offs.

They claim that the frontman used his hand to force the ball over the line, something he denies, for what turned out to be the winning goal. During this season's Worthington Cup clash he was booed every time he touched the ball and some would see the signing of Goater as a huge gamble by manager Paul Jewell.

However, the boss is understood to be a fan of the player and might seek to pair him up front with current Wigan hero Nathan Ellington.

Goater will not come cheap for whoever does get him to put pen to paper. Keegan has already stated that City will want a significant fee - figures around ?1-million have been mentioned - as his former club, Bristol City, are due 20 percent of any transfer due to a clause in the deal signed when Goater moved from Ashton Gate in 1998.

Meanwhile, though Goater will be the centre of attention next Sunday when City play their final game of the season against Southampton, a game for which he will be made made captain, he will have to make do with a place among the substitutes, at best, today when his side travel to Liverpool.

Keegan will stick with the starting 11 that went down 1-0 at home to West Ham for the trip to Anfield last weekend.

Kyle Lightbourne will play his final game in a Macclesfield shirt today when the Silkmen take on Rochdale in the final game of the Third Division campaign. The 34-year-old has been told he will not be offered a new contract when his current one runs out at the end of the season. He has still to decide what his next move will be, to seek a new club or to retire from the game altogether.

John Barry Nusum was in New York last night as the Atlanta Silverbacks took on the Rochester Rhinos in the US A-League. It was Nusum's second match of the season, having scored in the 2-2 draw with the Pittsburgh Riverhounds last week. Khano Smith, meanwhile, is expected to be in the Carolina Dynamos squad which takes on Wilmington tonight in the United Soccer Leagues.