A former Newcastle United trainee, he made his name at Stockport County between 1994 and 2000, helping the club to win promotion, he played 219 games in league and cup.
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.
[3] During his time at the club, he was loaned out to the Swedish team Djurgården in a player exchange program, where his first game ended in him producing an own goal.
[4] Dinning remained at Molineux 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's Wigan Athletic for £750,000.
[7][8] Finding his form at Wigan,[3] he was still soon loaned out to fellow Second Division side Stoke City for the closing months of the 2001–02 campaign,[9] where he played in their play-off final triumph over Brentford.
However, he found himself out of favour in Wigan's subsequent second tier seasons, leading to loan spells at Walsall,[10] Blackpool (who he captained[11]),[12] Ipswich Town,[13] and finally, Bristol City,[14] whom he eventually joined on a free transfer.
[16] With just twenty appearances, his time with Bristol City proved short-lived, and he moved to Port Vale on loan at the end of the 2004–05 season,[17] signing permanently the following summer.
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.
[29] Captaining the side for a handful of games when Nick Wellecomme was absent,[30] he fell out of favour by the end of the season,[31] after missing a penalty in an "embarrassing" ten men defeat to ten-man Ilkeston.