Nicky Weaver faces Sunderland today believing he has turned his costly mistake against Ipswich into a positive, writes DAVID ANDERSON.

The Manchester City goalkeeper spilled a shot to gift Ipswich their equaliser in Tuesday's Worthington Cup quarter-final before George Burley's side went on to win in extra time.

Weaver admitted he was at fault and he has been working hard in training to eradicate the error.

He has sought advice from the club's goalkeeping coach Alex Stepney and feels some good has now come out of his blunder.

''As a goalkeeper you are always going to make mistakes, but as long as you learn from them that's the important thing,'' he said.

''It's about how you react to the mistakes that counts and I know what I've got to do to eradicate this type of error.

''I feel I don't make a great deal of mistakes as a goalkeeper and I've forgotten about it now.

''I've spoken to our goalkeeping coach about it and it's out of my mind now. He just said whenever he made a mistake he was pretty much similar to me. He would sulk about it for a couple of hours but then he would put it totally out of his mind and work on it in training.

''We've been doing loads of close-in stuff, which was where the goal came from, and now a mistake has been turned into a positive.''

Weaver knows he will make mistakes but he stressed good goalkeepers did not repeat them.

''All goalkeepers make mistakes but the top ones never make back-to-back mistakes,'' he said.

''Even if you make a mistake in the first minute you have to get on with it, put it out of your mind and get on with the task in hand.''

City manager Joe Royle remains Weaver's biggest fan and believes he will still go on to play for England.

''He's made a mistake and he's big enough to come in and accept that.''