Dinning determined to make amends

Nov 9 2007 by David Triggs, Chester Chronicle

TONY Dinning heads back to Valley Parade tomorrow determined to put right the wrongs that condemned the Blues to a rare away defeat on Tuesday.

While the Chester midfielder has had a steadying influence on the team since his arrival in October, he blotted his copybook with a couple of uncharacteristic errors during the midweek League Two tussle with the Bantams.

After giving away a first-half penalty and having his blushes spared by John Danby’s superb save from Nicky Law, Dinning had the chance to score from the spot early in the second period – but his powerful drive was pushed on to the crossbar by Bradford keeper Donovan Ricketts.

Chester went on to lose 2-1, but tomorrow’s FA Cup tie between the two sides gives Dinning an early shot at redemption – and he won’t shy away from taking a penalty should one come City’s way.

The 32-year-old said: ‘I’m never going to hide away from taking a penalty. I don’t know if the lads will be happy with that, though. If anyone else is keen enough and wants to take the penalties, then good luck to them, but it would be nice to score.’

Dinning added: ‘I’m still disappointed and will be until the next time I manage to score a goal of any sort. I think you should never miss a penalty to be honest, but I did do. The keeper’s got a 50/50 chance of saving it but I think I should have scored. I take responsibility.’

As for the incident which led to Bradford’s penalty kick, Dinning – who tripped the Bantams’ Chester-born midfielder Eddie Johnson – has no complaints.

He said: ‘It was a penalty, to be fair. I was going to just blast the ball clear, but rather than do that I tried to take a touch and look for a way to play out. The lad’s come across me and took the ball and I did catch him.’

The events of Tuesday evening have only served to make Dinning and his teammates more determined to get a result tomorrow.

He said: ‘Everybody was disappointed on Tuesday to lose our unbeaten record in the manner that we did. We’re just looking forward to putting things right on Saturday.

‘It gives us a bit of added confidence to know we have dominated the game there, especially the second half.’

The draw for the second round will be made on BBC1 after Sunday’s live coverage of Torquay v Yeovil. The match is due to finish at about 5pm.