players in the English Third Division on Sunday night when he travels to London for the Player of the Year ceremonies.

Lightbourne will rub shoulders with the top players in England during the black-tie affair, having been chosen by the other players in his division to the Third Division team. He received the honour with his captain, midfielder Martin O'Connor, and both players will receive medals.

"I'll get to see all the top players and will be at the ceremony when they pick the young player of the year and player of the year,'' said a proud Lightbourne yesterday from his Walsall home.

"It's something I'm really looking forward to, it's the highlight of my career so far.'' At this stage of the season the PFA (Professional Footballers' Association) distribute nomination forms to all the clubs for their players to fill out, naming their choices for player of the year and young player of the year.

Lightbourne's choices were Allan Shearer of Blackburn and Liverpool's young striker Robbie Fowler.

The players also choose the best team from their divisions, though they cannot vote for any players from their own clubs.

Lightbourne, with 22 goals, is enjoying his most successful season in English football, two seasons after being released along with six other team-mates by Third Division club Scarborough when Phil Chambers took over as manager.

And less than a year after being released to receive a new contract offer from Walsall, Lightbourne has turned down another contract offer as he holds out for better terms.

"I just want to get the best for myself,'' said Lightbourne, who did confirm that the offer was better than the current contract which expires at the end of the season.

"Since February they have offered me a new contract and I've been in and had talks. We're trying to work together to come to an agreement. It's not a real big thing.'' One of the things offered in the new contract was a bonus for scoring goals -- the same bonus Lightbourne tried unsuccessfully to have inserted in his contract last May.

"Yes, they offered that to me and they offered me quite a few good things,'' Lightbourne disclosed. "I just have to sort it out with them.'' Lightbourne's two main objectives now are to help Walsall get promoted to the Second Division and to reach his 30-goal target. Walsall have nine games remaining and play a make-up match tonight against second-from-bottom Exeter.

Walsall are presently third in the standings while Carlisle are the runaway leaders of the division. The top two teams gain automatic promotion while the next four will be involved in a play-off to decide the third team to go up into the Second Division.

"It's just a matter of going on a run,'' said Lightbourne. "If we can win the rest of our games we will automatically get promoted. Out of all the teams we have to play, Wigan twice and Bury, and I feel we're a stronger team than the teams we have to play.

"Hopefully things go well from here on in. As a team everybody's getting that feeling back, the feeling that you're going to do well.'' Added Lightbourne: "If we can keep clean sheets we stand a good chance of winning games. We've scored in each of our last 25 games.

"We're after clean sheets right now. We've been working on it in training.'' Kyle Lightbourne