Kyle Lightbourne will be hoping that some of Shaun Goater's fortunes rub off on him when he and Stoke City take on Gillingham in the Second Division play-off semi-finals.

The two-leg tie will be held tomorrow (at Stoke) and next Wednesday at Gillingham with the winners advancing to the final at Wembley on May 28 against the winners of the other tie between Wigan and Millwall.

Gillingham, who lost to Manchester City in last year's play-off final, could be vulnerable psychologically after failing to clinch the second automatic play-off spot last Saturday when they lost to Wrexham. Victory would have earned them promotion ahead of Burnley on goal difference.

"We're the form team in the division,'' said Lightbourne, who noted that only three points separated them from Gillingham in the final standings.

"The main thing is we don't let them score on Saturday. We're definitely looking forward to it, we're in a good mood especially after being at Wembley not long ago.'' Goater has understandably attracted all the attention lately with his push for promotion to the Premiership, with Lightbourne now hoping to make it a double promotion for Bermuda.

"I'm delighted for Shaun, I spent a bit of time with him after he got promoted,'' said Lightbourne. "He's had a splendid season and tipped it off with promotion. This is probably the best way of making it, by being with the team all along.

"I guess you appreciate it more in a sense. He's earned the right to get there and hopefully things work out well for him in the Premier League.'' Stoke, one of the founding members of the Football League in 1888, are desperate to get out of the Second Division after two seasons. They almost didn't reach the play-offs after losing their final match to Reading. But Bristol Rovers, just below them, failed to take the last play-off spot by losing to already relegated Cardiff in their last match.

"Gillingham had a chance of going up automatically on Saturday and ended up losing which they will be disappointed about,'' said Lightbourne.

"I hope we can capitalise on that disappointment. Although we lost on Saturday, another team slipped up and allowed us to get in.

"It just goes to show that every game is a difficult game, because players are playing for contracts. And every team likes to spoil another team's pride.

"At Reading on Saturday, they had nothing to play for but they made it a very difficult game and ended up beating us 1-0 with a penalty. We had a goal disallowed as well but thank God a little luck was on our side with the other team losing.'' Gillingham will be the favourites for the last promotion spot, having reached the final last year and then finishing third this year.

"Without a doubt it will be a difficult game,'' added Lightbourne, who is playing in a promotion play-off for the first time.

It was the possibility of reaching the play-offs that left Lightbourne with a club versus country dilemma regarding the recent World Cup qualifying. In the end he stayed with his club after asking the BFA to "consider his situation''.

"I wanted to be in both places at the same time,'' he admitted. "It was a difficult situation and I'm sure a lot has been said about it. I was worried about my club situation because when I went to BVI it took me four matches to get back into the team. That knocked me off my stride a bit. I'm playing for my future.'' Despite his lack of goals, Lightbourne believes he is playing as well as ever.

His role has changed somewhat from when he was Walsall's top scorer, with his job now to provide the opportunities for hitman Peter Thorne.

"Maybe people in Bermuda don't really understand everything about the professional game,'' said Lightbourne.

"Even though I haven't been scoring a lot of goals I have been creating a lot. This is probably one of my best seasons in England without scoring goals.

"When I was at Walsall, Kevin Wilson used to supply me, now I'm more or less supplying Peter Thorne up front. A lot of things happen through me. I'm helping the team out a lot in that sense.

"It works as a partnership and obviously you would like to be scoring goals but sometimes that doesn't always happen. All the players in the team realise the job that I'm doing.'' Kyle Lightbourne: goalscorer turned goal provider.