Nottingham Forest allowed Tendayi Darikwa to leave the club in January 2021 and he’s become something of a fan favourite at Wigan Athletic.
On Tuesday night, however, he had an evening to forget as Wigan took on Sutton United in the semi-final of the Papa John’s Trophy.
After a 1-1 draw at home to the League Two outfit the game headed to penalties for a place in the Wembley final.
Max Power and Harry Beautyman both missed early doors in the shootout; with several good penalties following.
After Louis Jean had netted for Sutton, the former Forest defender Darikwa had to score.
His pretty weak penalty was saved by Dean Bouzanis. The right-back was devastated and the Latics were on the wrong end of an upset.
The Nottingham-born performer was pretty unfortunate with injuries during his time at the City Ground.
He made 63 appearances but an injury prior to the 2019/20 campaign robbed him of several months of his career.
By the time he was fit again he was way down the pecking order. As a result, he was never given a chance at redemption by Chris Hughton.
His departure has helped him kick on again and he will want to get back on track with Wigan as soon as possible.
Ex-Forest star Darikwa can ease penalty hell by winning promotion
In large, Darikwa was pretty steady for Forest and he always gave his all.
Given that his contract was expiring, the Reds were in limbo, to be honest, and allowing him to leave made perfect sense.
The Reds landed him for just £1 million from Burnley and he proved a decent servant; something which he’s now doing at Wigan.
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Leam Richardson has made him the club captain and he’s led by example this season, with the Latics firmly in the promotion mix.
Darikwa is a model professional and he shouldn’t dwell on Tuesday’s missed penalty for too long.
He must use the setback as motivation to help Wigan return to the Championship at the end of the campaign.