The following year he joined Aris FC, at the beginning of Aris' second division adventure 2005/06 and immediately established himself as a starting line-up player, scoring several goals, especially in the first part of the season when Aris rather had an unexpectedly average start. At the time, attacking with him played Ioakim Beniskos with all rounder Fernando Sanjurjo behind, and Caceres striking more from left. At the half-season Christmas break, Aris did not look particularly good (yet not that far from the top of the division either) and they needed some strengthening transfers in order to immediately bounce back and return to the A category. They bought Ethymis Kouloucheris (defender) and even more importantly Paulo Costa and Nikos Skarmoutsos to empower their attack. The buys seemed exactly spot on, all immediately establishing themselves in the line up, helping Aris a lot in the attacking sector, which further meant that Gougoulias' starting spot had been in doubt, eventually losing it, with only being an occasional starter, consequently dropping his great scoring ratio.