Tony Dinning (born 12 April 1975) is an English former football

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who spent sixteen years of an eighteen-year career in the Football League, making 515 appearances in league and cup competitions. A former Newcastle United trainee, he made his name at

Stockport County Stockport County Football Club are a professional football club in Stockport, England, who compete in EFL League Two, the fourth tier of the English football league system. Formed in 1883 as Heaton Norris Rovers, they were renamed Stockport Co ...

between 1994 and 2000, helping the club to win promotion, he played 219 games in league and cup. Following a £700,000 move to

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (), commonly known as Wolves, is a professional football club based in Wolverhampton, England, which compete in the . The club has played at Molineux Stadium since moving from Dudley Road in 1889. The club's ...

, he was sold on to

Wigan Athletic Wigan Athletic Football Club () is an English professional association football club based in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England. The team competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1932, ...

for £750,000 in 2001. Helping Wigan to promotion, he also enjoyed loan spells out to Stoke City (who he also helped to win promotion),

Walsall Walsall (, or ; locally ) is a market town and administrative centre in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Staffordshire, it is located north-west of Birmingham, east of Wolverhampton and from Lichfield. Walsall is th ...

, Blackpool, and

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Ipswich, Suffolk, England. They play in League One, the third tier of the English football league system. The club was founded in 1878 but did not turn profession ...

, before he signed with

Bristol City Bristol City Football Club is a professional football club based in Bristol, England, which compete in the , the second tier of English football. They have played their home games at Ashton Gate since moving from St John's Lane in 1904. The ...

in 2004. He moved on to

Port Vale Port Vale Football Club are a professional football club based in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent, England, which compete in . Vale are the only English Football League club not to be named after a place; their name being a reference to the valley o ...

the following year, taking up the captain's armband. He then returned to Stockport for one season, before signing with Chester City in 2007. In 2009, he was loaned out to Grays Athletic and Gateshead, before dropping out of the Football League permanently after signing with Stafford Rangers via

Hednesford Town Hednesford Town Football Club is a football club based in Hednesford, Staffordshire, England. They are currently members of the and play at Keys Park. History The club was established in 1880 as a merger of the Red & Whites and Hill Top.

. He retired in 2011, after a spell with Bridgnorth Town.

Career

Early career and Stockport County

Dinning began his career at Newcastle United in 1993. During his time at the club he was loaned out to the Swedish team

Djurgården Djurgården ( or ) or, more officially, ''Kungliga Djurgården'' (), is an island in central Stockholm, Sweden. Djurgården is home to historical buildings and monuments, museums, galleries, the amusement park Gröna Lund, the open-air museum ...

in a player exchange program, where his first game ended in him producing an own goal. Dinning failed to make an appearance for Newcastle before being released. Following his release he joined

in June 1994. He played twenty league games in County's

Second Division In sport, the Second Division, also called Division 2 or Division II is usually the second highest division of a league, and will often have promotion and relegation with divisions above and below. Following the rise of Premier League style compet ...

promotion-winning 1996–97 campaign. He cemented his place in the

Edgeley Park Edgeley Park is a football stadium in Edgeley, Stockport, England. Built for rugby league club Stockport RFC in 1891, by 1903, the rugby club was defunct and Stockport County Football Club moved in. Edgeley Park is an all-seater stadium hold ...

first eleven throughout their subsequent First Division campaigns, culminating in him picking up the player of the season award for the 1999–2000 season, in what turned out to be his final season with the club. He played a total of 219 games for the club and scored 28 goals, 13 of which came in the 1999–2000 season.

Wolverhampton Wanderers

In September 2000, he moved to

for £700,000. However, he remained with the club for less than a year; ironically, it was his former Stockport manager Dave Jones who decided he had no future at Wolves and sold him to

Paul Jewell Paul Jewell (born 28 September 1964) is an English football manager and former player, who was most recently director of football at Swindon Town. Jewell began his playing career with Liverpool, continued at Wigan Athletic and concluded in a ...

for £750,000.

Wigan Athletic

Finding his form at Wigan, he was still soon loaned out to fellow Second Division side Stoke City for the closing months of the 2001–02 campaign, where he played in their play-off final triumph over Brentford. He returned to his parent club the following season, and played 44 games, helping them to win promotion as champions. However, he found himself out of favour in Wigan's subsequent second tier seasons, leading to loan spells at

, Blackpool (who he captained),

, and finally,

, whom he eventually joined on a free transfer. At Blackpool he started the

final Final, Finals or The Final may refer to: * Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event ** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of con ...

as Blackpool won the 2003–04 Football League Trophy with a 2–0 victory over

Southend United Southend United Football Club is a professional association football club based in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, England. As of the 2022–23 season, the team competes in the National League, the fifth tier of English football. Southend are known as ...

at the Millennium Stadium.

Bristol City, Port Vale and return to Stockport

With just twenty appearances, his time with

proved short-lived, and he moved to

on loan at the end of the 2004–05 season, signing permanently the following summer. He played 41 games in the 2005–06 campaign, also taking up the captain's armband. In May 2006, he agreed a deal to re-join former club

. Manager

Jim Gannon James Paul Gannon (born 7 September 1968) is a professional football manager and former player who most recently was manager of Hyde United. He started and finished his career as a player in Ireland, but made most of his professional appear ...

described Dinning as a "born leader", and utilized him in 32 league games.

Chester City

In August 2007, Dinning had his contract with Stockport cancelled by mutual agreement, due to lack of first-team opportunities. After a month spent training with Chester City, he finally joined on 5 October 2007. He made his debut two days later in a 3–1 win over

Shrewsbury Town Shrewsbury Town Football Club is a professional association football club based in Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England. The team competes in League One, the third tier of English football. The club plays its home games at the New Meadow, having mo ...

and scored his first goal for the club from the penalty spot in Chester's 1–0 win at Lincoln City the following month. Later in the season Dinning and teammate, Paul Butler, became embroiled in a dispute with the club and manager Simon Davies, but they remained at the club into 2008–09. However, Dinning was restricted to just two appearances in the opening half of the campaign, including a sending off shortly after coming on in a 1–0 defeat at AFC Bournemouth. He was allowed to join Scottish Premier League side

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team currently competes in the Scottish Championship, the second tier of the Scottish Professional ...

on trial in January 2009. He joined Conference National outfit, Grays Athletic on loan on 24 February 2009. On 26 March 2009, Dinning joined

Conference North The National League North, formerly Conference North, is a division of the National League in England, immediately below the National League division. Along with the National League South, it is at the second level of the National League Syst ...

side Gateshead on loan until the end of the season.

Later career

After being released by Chester in May 2009, he joined

in the Southern Football League Premier Division, but soon left for Conference North club Stafford Rangers after Hednesford manager

Dean Edwards Dean Edwards (born July 30, 1970) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, singer, writer and musician. His work as a voice actor includes Scottie Pippen and Spike Lee in ''Celebrity Deathmatch'', a robot in ''Robotomy'', and Donkey in ''Scar ...

left the club. He got into a car accident in December, and was sidelined for a few weeks due to a

whiplash Whiplash may refer to: * The long flexible part of a whip * Whiplash (medicine), a neck injury ** Whiplash Injury Protection System (WHIPS), in automobiles Film and television * ''Whiplash'' (1948 film), a US film noir about a boxer * ''Whiplas ...

injury he sustained. Captaining the side for a handful of games when Nick Wellecomme was absent, he fell out of favour by the end of the season, after missing a penalty in an "embarrassing" ten men defeat to ten-man

Ilkeston Ilkeston is a town in the Borough of Erewash, Derbyshire, England, on the River Erewash, from which the borough takes its name, with a population at the 2011 census of 38,640. Its major industries, coal mining, iron working and lace making/texti ...

. Dinning left the club in the summer after falling out with manager Mark Wright. In July 2010, he joined

Midland Football Alliance The Midland Football Alliance was an English association football league for semi-professional teams. It covered Leicestershire, Shropshire, Staffordshire, Warwickshire, West Midlands, Worcestershire and also southern parts of Derbyshire and Not ...

club Bridgnorth Town as a player-coach, working under

Lee Mills Rowan Lee Mills (born 10 July 1970) is an English former footballer who played as a striker. In a career spanning fourteen years he made 293 appearances in the Football League, scoring 86 goals. He played for numerous clubs and was transferr ...

. Making thirteen appearances for Bridgnorth, at the end of their first season the pair quit the club, citing a wish to move on to a new challenge.

Career statistics

Honours

Individual *

Player of the Season: 1999–2000 Stockport County *

Football League Second Division The Football League Second Division was the second level division in the English football league system between 1892 and 1992. Following the foundation of the FA Premier League, the Football League divisions were renumbered and the third t ...

second-place promotion: 1996–97 Stoke City *

play-offs: 2002 Wigan Athletic *

: 2002–03 Blackpool *

Football League Trophy The English Football League Trophy, known for sponsorship purposes as the Papa Johns Trophy after restaurant chain Papa John's Pizza, is an annual English association football knockout competition open to all clubs in EFL League One and EFL Le ...

: 2004

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Dinning, Tony 1975 births Living people English footballers Association football midfielders Wallsend Boys Club players Newcastle United F.C. players English expatriate footballers Expatriate footballers in Sweden Djurgårdens IF Fotboll players Stockport County F.C. players Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C. players Bristol City F.C. players Port Vale F.C. players Ipswich Town F.C. players Wigan Athletic F.C. players Stoke City F.C. players Walsall F.C. players Blackpool F.C. players Chester City F.C. players Grays Athletic F.C. players Gateshead F.C. players Hednesford Town F.C. players Stafford Rangers F.C. players Bridgnorth Town F.C. players English Football League players National League (English football) players Southern Football League players Midland Football Alliance players Association football coaches