Tabb takes blow on chin

Anthony Smith • Published 8 Oct 2009 13:30 0 Comments

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JAY Tabb says he has taken being dropped from the Reading team "on the chin" - then reaffirmed his desire to force his way back into Brendan Rodgers' plans.

Tabb has slipped down the Royals pecking order and has not even made the 18-man squad for the last two Championship games, a 2-1 win at Preston and 2-0 home defeat by Middlesbrough.

Now rumours have surfaced that QPR want to offer Tabb first-team football and take him to Loftus Road on loan.

The versatile midfielder issued his manager with a firm reminder of his attacking prowess with a goal for the reserves in a 3-1 victory against Forest Green Rovers reserves at Farnborough's Cherrywood Road on Monday night.

And the £300,000 Coventry City signing told the Chronicle: "We have 26 players in our squad and everyone wants to be playing. Unfortunately, that's not possible.

"I admit it's frustrating but that's the life of a footballer. When you are in the team and winning it's all good, when you aren't it is not so good.

"But I still enjoy training under Brendan and I love being at the club. I've got to take it on the chin, keep working hard and hopefully my chance will come again.

"It would be nice to be in the squad when we play West Brom but if not it is because there are a lot of good midfielders at the club.

"I know how good they are because I've played against many of them in the past and I see them in training every day."

Tabb has started just three Championship games this season and has not featured in a match since the 3-1 defeat by Sheffield United.

After a run-out for the second-string on Monday he said: "It was nice to play, especially with so many young players. I always like to help the youngsters come through and they all did well.

"We created chances and we could have scored five or six. I played in central midfield and I got forward a lot. I gambled at the back post for my goal and enjoyed it.

"But I've played up front behind the strikers before with the Republic of Ireland Under-21s and with Brentford so I'm used to it."

Tabb arrived at Reading in January when the team, then under Steve Coppell, were flying high in the Championship.

But his arrival has coincided with an horrendous home run of 15 league games without a win if you include the Championship play-off against Burnley.

"It's baffling," he declared. "The day after I signed for Reading I sat in the stands and watched us beat Wolves at home.

"It was a big one at the time because we were both at the top end of table so it's incredible to think it was the last time we won at home in the league.

"I don't know why that is, I can't put my finger on it and nor can anyone else."

However, he argued: "We've played well on occasions and should have won some games especially towards the end of last season. But we haven't got our rewards.

"I don't think we're far away at all. I think we only need the one win to get us on a run and restore fans' confidence as well as our own.

"But we're too stop-start at the moment. It's very frustrating because we know our squad is good enough to be right up there.

"We haven't had the start we wanted, we expected to be much higher up the table. But we have a two week break to recover and hopefully when we come back we can string three or fours wins together and really push on."

Hal Robson-Kanu and Academy striker Jacob Walcott also scored for the reserves on Monday.

There was also a reserves debut for Academy product Frankie Raymond while John Goddard and Lawson D'Ath made their debuts after coming off the bench.

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