IT’S going to take more than his “worst penalty by a mile” to put Alan Sheehan off the scent of a regular City role again.

The Irish defender bounced back from his spot-kick gaffe at York with a confident display against Shrewsbury in his first Valley Parade start since January.

Sheehan is back in favour after a tough first year at the club which saw him loaned out late on to Peterborough.

As he prepares for another outing at centre half tonight against Gillingham, the 28-year-old is desperate to grab his second chance.

“I knew it was a long way back,” he said. “I found myself out the team for a good bit last year but I look on that as a lesson learned.

“The team were doing very well and I’d be in for a couple, out for a couple and the second half of the season wasn’t really favourable for me.

“You want to be on the pitch all the time and it was frustrating. But sometimes you have to keep your head down and get on with it.

“It made me work extra hard through pre-season. The manager knows that I never wanted to go anywhere because I want to play here.

“Without being cheesy, as long as I’ve got a Bradford City shirt on I’m very fortunate. We’re very privileged to be walking out in front of 18,000 fans.

“People think I’m quite laid back, and I probably am, but I know I’m a very lucky man to be playing for this club.

“So whether I’m playing left back, left centre back, even in goal, I’m here to do what I can for the team.”

Sheehan admits he has plenty to prove – even if he willingly gave up penalty duties following his Capital One Cup blunder.

“I’m raring to go. I’m fitter than ever and enjoyed the last couple of games – apart from the terrible penalty.

“It was the worst I’ve ever hit by a mile. I think I caught it too well, it was like I was hitting a free-kick or something.

“It wasn’t good enough for me. You need to be hitting the target so I’ll step aside because there are enough good penalty-takers at the club now to do it.”

Sheehan is as infuriated as any fan at seeing City let three half-time leads slip away so far.

“Swindon was a game of two halves. We could have been 3-0 up at half-time and then they came out and ran riot.

“It could have been three or four at York again and it was the same story. Then the other day, Shrewsbury scored after 30 seconds.

“It’s all about results. Two league games without winning and people get impatient.

“But we’re very hungry and we’ll be working hard to get that win tonight.”