It sounded like the dream move, the end of an era in Manchester was nigh and an ambitious club just one rung below in the footballing ladder had come-a-calling.

The promise was pretty much guaranteed first team football and despite the legendary status The Goat had achieved with the City fans, the focus was now on higher-paid, bigger name stars, the Robbie Fowlers, Nicolas Anelkas and Paulo Wanchopes, and it was time for pastures new.

Good things couldn?t last for ever and the offer from Reading was as good as it got, so Goater left Manchester City and all the great memories he had garnered during the apex of his professional career.

There were the promotions, the goals against Manchester United, the emergence of the ?Feed the Goat? chant, the achievement of talisman-status among some of the most loyal and fanatical fans in the modern British game.

The send-off came at Maine Road, the final game there for the club and for the player and then it was off to conquer a new set of fans quite a bit further down the M1.

Alan Pardew got the Goat to put pen to paper on a three-year contract that was to extend the Bermudian?s career and the aim was a simple one, get into the Premiership.

Everything was in place and the big striker was excited.

?It was a fresh challenge and I was ready for it,? recalled Goater, whose move from light blue to dark blue stripes cost the club approximately ?500,000 and put Goater up there with the Championship side?s top earners.

?It was clear it was time to move away from Manchester and this looked the perfect offer to keep me playing football but at a club that clearly wanted me.

?Alan Pardew is a great manager, one of the best as far as I am concerned, and I was looking forward to working with him and I know that he had done a lot to sign me.

?No disrespect to Steve Coppell but I think Alan was a fantastic manager and I think Reading would be in the Premiership now if he hadn?t left.?

Unfortunately, attaining the signature of The Goat was one of Pardew?s final acts for the club and his departure for Clyde Best?s old team heralded the era of Steve Coppell and, for all intents and purposes, the end of Goater?s sustained contribution to the UK professional game?s higher levels.

What happened over the next few months has been well documented, with Goater?s plight at Reading, particularly in the second and final year, filling plenty of column inches in this newspaper and also giving the big man a brief resurgence into the national eye.

Somehow Goater managed to finish top scorer in his first season at Reading, although the 13 goal total was far below his normal tally.

His big problem was a lack of matches, Coppell didn?t appear to see the same qualities in the Goat as other managers had appreciated and he was often left dangling his feet on the bench, even once being yanked from the starting eleven midway through a scoring streak because the coach thought it was best to rest him ? the communication of that decision, or the lack of it, to the player didn?t make it any easier for the goal-gobbling Goat to swallow.

By the time the second season came around, the 2004-2005 campaign, things had become even worse.

During the summer break Goater had all but fallen out of Coppell?s plans and he was consigned to a pre-season on the bench ? starting only in a testimonial between Reading and City because of a clause in the Bermudian?s contract ? and then the start of the season on the bench.

A far cry from being fed by Coppell, Goater was just being thrown scraps, a two-minute substitute appearance here, a start in a minor cup competition there, only being allowed to fill the team sheet from the start during times of injury to the now first-choice strikers.

Goater did get a brief run in the first team, but it was to be cut short by a calf injury against Leeds, prompting the now fed-up striker to declare this his ?worst season in football?.

But then the season sank even further into the mire and his ?worst moment in football? was shortly to follow.

Bosom buddy and fellow UK pro Kyle Lightbourne was now at the helm of Bermuda football and Goater made plenty of noise about wanting to play for his close friend after some thought his international career was over when Bermuda?s World Cup qualifying campaign came to an end against El Salvador.

Bermuda were involved in the Digicel Cup in St. Vincent and Goater was not involved in the first team at Reading, the perfect opportunity for him to come home and play for his mate and get some much-needed match practice.

In somewhat of a fanfare, Goater declared he was coming back, permission was sought and granted, the plane tickets were booked and everyone was excited.

But within hours of departure from the UK, Reading assistant manager Kevin Dillon put a call in telling Goater that he was needed for his club and he would definitely be involved in that weekend?s game.

Lightbourne was informed, as a professional he suggested his pal Shaun had to do what was right by his paymasters, Goater pulled out at the 11th hour, a replacement had to be found and the knives came out for the striker with the Bermuda media full of criticism of him for abandoning his country. Needless to say, back at Reading, he was an unused sub.

?That really was the low point for me, the low point of my time at Reading, probably my career,? he said with a sigh.

?I was copping flak at home, I was getting it here in England, I couldn?t get in the Reading team, people were saying I didn?t care about playing for Bermuda, it was a really tough time for me.

?I was angry with the Reading management over that incident, I was angry because they had messed me about and landed me in a situation where I had let down my country, something that is precious to me, and I had let down Kyle. He understood but that doesn?t mean it was any easier for him to lose a key striker just before they had to fly off to this tournament.

?I felt let down by the club and it was probably the first time I thought hard about possible retirement. I wasn?t even getting a game and I was being criticised at home, those sort of things hit hard for me.?

It was such a bad time for Goater that when he later realised he was stranded on 49 games and Reading were no longer going to play him for the sake of the ?50,000 it would cost them on his 50th appearance, that wasn?t even the worst part of his season.

?That was a sad way to end things,? said Goater, who was eventually bought out of the final year of his contract enabling him to move on to Southend.

?I had seen it happen to other players at other clubs, it is the financial reality of football and some players can get caught out by it.

?It is sad to see that happen to someone but it does and you just have to deal with it as a professional.

?What made it hardest for me to deal with was that I had such a long time left on my contract. It is one thing not playing a player for the last few weeks of a season that isn?t going anywhere, but to come out and say that even though I have more than a year left it was not worth paying that money to keep me as an option was hard to take.

?The saving grace of the whole situation, and something I am grateful to Coppell for doing, is coming out and saying publicly what was happening.

?I was not playing and people didn?t know why and I didn?t want to break the confidentiality of the contract. But when the club came out and said what they did at least it didn?t look like I had been causing trouble or was holding out for something.

?It was a shame that my time at Reading ended in that way and it was a shame that I came so close to retiring from the game even though I know I have at least another year in me.

?But I am happy at Southend and I am still on good terms with Reading.?

But not good enough that the damage done by the Digicel Cup debacle will ever be forgiven or forgotten.

In tomorrow?s . The early years, his favourite players and drugs.