now being matched by a goal in each of his last three games.

The Bermudian striker, who traditionally starts slowly in the scoring department, hit his fifth goal of the season on Saturday when he scored in the 27th minute as Second Division leaders Stoke beat Reading 1-0 in the FA Cup.

One report described how "three Reading defenders backed off as Lightbourne ran through unchallenged before shooting low past keeper Scott Howie''.

Lightbourne is pleased to be finding the net again. He described the header he scored against Burnley as his best goal of the season.

"I've been happy with my form all season -- except for the goals,'' he said yesterday.

"That's the way it was at Walsall, I would start slow and pick it up towards the middle of the season, Christmas and New's Year's.'' Lightbourne dismissed a report a few weeks ago in a Bermuda weekend paper that he was booed by the Stoke City fans. He admitted that did happen last season when he arrived at the club, got sick and was playing below his best.

Lightbourne scoring "At the time the whole team was getting booed,'' he recalled.

However, this season, despite the lack of goals, things have been encouraging for the Bermudian. He has high praise for new manager Brian Little who has turned the club around in a short time.

"I've been starting most of the games, in fact of the 18 league games I've started in about 14,'' he explained.

"This season the fans have been tremendous, they have taken to me. Obviously I had a problem last season when I couldn't play to my full potential, but I regained my strength at the beginning of this season and the fans have no problem with me.'' The recent scoring streak has Lightbourne thinking again about a 20-goal season. He is tied on five goals with Peter Thorne while Dean Crowe and midfielder Graham Kavanagh, who takes the penalties and free kicks, both have six.

"I'm hoping to overtake them pretty soon,'' Lightbourne admits.

"In terms of goals I would like to get over 20 league goals again and I'm trying to get myself on target to get ten before Christmas.

"We've got some tough games coming up in the next couple of weeks. In December we play Walsall, Manchester City and Preston in a short space of time.'' Stoke lead the Second Division by a point over Fulham who have two games in hand, while Shawn Goater's Manchester City are in seventh place, ten points behind.

And while Lightbourne's former team, Walsall, are third in the standings, he thinks the two automatic promotion spots will be decided by Stoke, Fulham and Manchester City.

Stoke, one of the founder members of the Football League back in 1888, are hoping to add a good FA Cup run to their promotion push. They meet Swansea in the next round.

"The FA Cup is different from the Coca Cola Cup,'' said Lightbourne. "It's such a good cup to play in because of the history in it. The non-league teams come in and tend to get upsets.

Lightbourne has also been following the progress of another former club, PHC, whom he heard were beaten in the FA Cup recently by Robin Hood. Lightbourne scored twice when PHC beat Robin Hood in the semi-finals eight years ago and was recently reminded of that game.

"Funny enough when we played against Burnley two weeks ago, I was having an interview with one of the reporters when a guy came up and said `I remember you from Bermuda'. He said he was playing for Robin Hood at the time and talked about that match.

"It's a small world.'' Kyle Lightbourne