Elgin City midfielder Tony Dingwall is out to prove his doubters wrong by thriving for the Black and Whites this season.
Dingwall will spend the upcoming campaign at Borough Briggs after signing a 12-month extension, having joined last December following a spell with Raith Rovers.
The former Ross County player has struggled to hold down regular football since leaving his hometown team in January 2019, having made a promising breakthrough with the Staggies under Jim McIntyre.
After opening his account for the campaign with a free-kick which secured a 3-2 Premier Sports Cup win over East Fife last week, the 27-year-old feels confident he can make a big impact in Gavin Price’s side.
Dingwall said: “Hopefully I can kick on this season and prove a few things to a few people.
“I’m fully fit now and ready to go, so hopefully I can have a good season.
“I just want to get back enjoying playing football again, playing week-in, week-out.
“That’s my aim for the season. As a team we want to be up pushing for the promotion spots and along the way I’ve got a wee goal in my head I want to set for how many goals I score this year.
“It’s something I feel I need to do more of. On a personal note it was good just to get off the mark last week.
“There’s nothing worse as an attacking player than waiting and waiting for a goal when the new season starts.
“It’s my job to create and score goals, so if you don’t do that you can start overthinking.”
👋 Good Morning Black and Whites,
Start your morning off right with this top-corner free kick from @Tony_Dingwall, our match winner yesterday 👏
— Elgin City F.C. (@ElginCityFC) July 25, 2021
Dingwall was not among the players affected by a Covid outbreak at Elgin last month, and started all four of their group stage matches in the League Cup.
He made 11 appearances last season, having joined City just before the League Two campaign was suspended in January due to Covid-19.
After struggling to shake off an ankle injury last term, Dingwall is pleased with his progress ahead of tomorrow’s league opener at home to Stranraer.
Dingwall added: “Last season I didn’t really get going. I had an ankle injury and in hindsight I should have left it and not played, but I tried to keep going with one fit ankle.
“To be fair, the break came at a good time for me because I hurt my ankle so I wasn’t fit.
“Even when I came back it wasn’t right, I was struggling to run and I just shouldn’t have played.
“I spoke to the manager about it and he agreed that in hindsight we should have gone about it a different way.
“It’s a new season, so we will start afresh. I have come back quite fit and he’s happy with me so far.”
Although Elgin did not progress through the group stage of the League Cup, Dingwall feels finishing off with a victory against League One side East Fife shows they are on the right track ahead of the visit of the Blues.
He added: “It was good to get a win to give us a bit of confidence. It wasn’t a meaningless game, but the result wasn’t that important because we were both already out of the cup.
“In the same way we wanted to try and build confidence going into the season on Saturday.
“Because of the way our season started with the Covid issues, the manager said he wasn’t expecting big things in the cup, but he still wanted us to perform.
“It was all about building up for this Saturday, and making sure we were ready to go.”