When you hear a footballer recalling being released for being too small or too slight, it is often when they have, in fact, succeeded in making it to the professional game.Football needs players with diminutive statures – look at Lionel Messi, who stands at just 5ft 7in.<\/p>\n
But many do not make it, damaged by the mental blow of being rejected on the basis of a physical trait impossible for them to change.<\/p>\n
And that could have been the case for Jay Tabb, who was let go by Crystal Palace for that very reason, aged 16, in the summer of 2000.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was devastating when I was told I wasn\u2019t going to get a youth-team contract,\u201d he admits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had my heart set on being a footballer, and that was the first knock back I’d ever had. It took a while to get over.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeoff Taylor was my old manager and he’d left Palace and gone to Brentford, so when I was told I wasn’t needed at Palace anymore, I got in touch with Geoff, and he invited me down for a trial. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt didn’t go very well actually, and Geoff wasn’t there that day, but luckily he gave me a chance and offered me a youth-team contract and Brentford welcomed me in with open arms.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Bees were training in Tolworth at the time, just a stone\u2019s throw from where Tabb lived in Motspur Park, which made life simpler. He regained his confidence there, looking up to captain Paul Evans, who also played in the middle of the park.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just carefree and fun. I loved being in the youth team there and, on the odd occasion you\u2019d get to train with the first team, they\u2019d definitely help you out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Safe from relegation, Brentford were playing only for league position at the end of the 2000\/01 season, which concluded with two home games. <\/p>\n
A matter of hours before the visit of Luton Town on 3 May, Taylor called Tabb – who had only turned 17 less than three months earlier – to tell him manager Ray Lewington wanted him to be part of the squad and that he should come down to Griffin Park straightaway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought I might have been on the bench or on the stands, just as a bit of experience, but he went through the team and read my name out – I was taken aback and I thought he’d made a mistake. It was a massive shock. <\/p>\n
\u201cI’d had quite a good first season in the youth team, but never in a million years did I think I’d ever be given the chance to play in the first team that young. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe’d been at all the first-team games that season. We used to go on the pitch and tread in the divots at half-time and full-time. I would look at the players thinking hopefully I\u2019d get there one day, then all of a sudden, I got an opportunity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was so close to the end of the season, so they didn’t have enough kit in stock, and I had to wear an extra-large shirt and shorts. When I came out for the game with these massive shirt and shorts on it just looked ridiculous!<\/p>\n
\u201cI had time to ring my mum and dad and a few friends and they all came down and watched the game. It was incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tabb was a second-half substitute against Bury on the final day, but only played 11 times across the next two seasons; Steve Coppell was manager in 2001\/02, Wally Downes in 2002\/03. <\/p>\n
\u201cWally was always quite careful to look after me because I was still really small and Division Two football was quite bruising at the time,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
He was still only a teenager, but injuries played a part, too, and one to his knee cost him a loan move to Crawley Town, though he recovered without the need for surgery.<\/p>\n
Brentford exercised the option to extend Tabb\u2019s contract by 12 months in the summer of 2003 and they were soon rewarded for their faith.<\/p>\n
He only started one of the first 11 league games but scored two against Barnet in the LDV Vans Trophy on 14 October, another two against Luton Town in the league on 18 October and once more in the 4-0 demolition of Brighton & Hove Albion three days after that.<\/p>\n
A new contract, running until the summer of 2005, was duly drawn up and signed.<\/p>\n
The double against Barnet – then managed by Martin Allen – earned him a key role when Allen took over at Griffin Park on 18 March 2004. \u201cStraightaway, he said: \u2018You\u2019ve got to play for me!’\u201d<\/p>\n
Tabb was instrumental in \u2018The Great Escape\u2019, scoring four times in the final nine games as the Bees avoided relegation by three points, and was subsequently named Player of the Year. He then became a focal point for Allen over the next two seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cMartin came in and he was someone I got on with straightaway,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not sure he would have been everyone’s cup of tea, but I got on really well with him and he brought the best out of me. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe had his strange ways and he’d always do things to release the tension among the players. We had one game where we were travelling away, and we went down for dinner and we had to wear a shirt and tie – but with tracksuit bottoms and trainers as well!<\/p>\n
\u201cHe built a lot of confidence in me and he got me coming in early before training, practising my finishing and set-pieces, which made me develop as a player.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started then realising I was a first-team player rather than a young lad who was in the reserves and youth team and might make it. When I did become an established first-team player, I was definitely thinking I proved Palace wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
His impressive performances in two campaigns where Brentford reached the League One play-offs naturally brought talk of moves to clubs in higher divisions. <\/p>\n
\u201cI never really paid attention to much of that,\u201d he interjects. \u201cYou read stuff in the gossip columns, but I never had an approach from anyone. <\/p>\n
\u201cI love Brentford and I used to always kiss the badge when I scored, so I wouldn’t have been in any rush to go anywhere anyway.\u201d <\/p>\n
The conversation briefly turns to the second play-off semi-final defeats in 2006.<\/p>\n
\u201cLosing to Swansea was really hard to take because we probably should have been in the top two that season,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, when we actually didn’t make it and we got into the play-offs, it was always going to be tough. When you’re that close to automatic promotion, it’s a massive kick in the teeth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was definitely a case of licking our wounds when we came to play Swansea and they’d got in there and they were ready to go. It\u2019s horrible to look back. I was so gutted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Out of contract at the end of 2005\/06, like Allen and so many other key players, Tabb left the club, and joined Coventry on a three-year deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was 22 and I was looking to play Championship football,\u201d he admits. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to achieve that at Brentford, first and foremost, but when we lost to Swansea, I knew that was my last game for Brentford; I knew during the summer I was going to get an offer from a Championship club. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn an ideal world, I’d have been going to the Championship with Brentford. That’s what I wanted and if that happened, I wouldn’t have left for anyone. If we’d have got promoted that season and a top team in the Championship would\u2019ve come in for me, I’d have said no because I loved my whole time at Brentford.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs hard as it was, you\u2019ve always got to do what\u2019s best for yourself. At 22, in hindsight, I probably could\u2019ve stayed and given it another go, but Coventry are a huge club and when they came in, I couldn\u2019t really turn that down. You never know when your next opportunity is going to come around. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was so gutted to leave Brentford. Even now, it\u2019s my favourite club I ever played for. It was the club that changed my life.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of Brentford fans – who I got on so well with – would\u2019ve been disappointed I left, but I think a lot of them knew it was probably the right thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tabb went on to spend three seasons at Coventry, five seasons at Reading – a spell that ended after reaching the Premier League, where he played 12 times – and just over three at Ipswich Town, where he played twice against the Bees in 2014\/15.<\/p>\n
His mum sadly passed away in 2015 and, by that Christmas, he had not played a single game for three months.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Racing Together 2019, he recalled how he had planned to play until the age of 35, but those two huge factors led to his decision to retire at 32, after a short time training with Burton Albion.<\/p>\n
He was completely at peace with his choice – and retiring early, on his own terms, has allowed him to pursue his passions.<\/p>\n
After a break, Tabb started working for his dad\u2019s building firm and then played semi-professional rugby with Old Wimbledonians, before caddying for professional golfer Lauren Horsford on the Ladies European Tour.<\/p>\n
And there was national media coverage aplenty when it emerged he was working as a stable lad for racehorse trainer Philip Hobbs in Somerset, having learned how to ride during a 12-week intensive course at the Northern Racing College.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intention was never to try and be a jockey, it was purely just to work in racing,\u201d he says. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was down there for two-and-a-half years and the buzz of going up the gallops is incredible. It\u2019s just as good as scoring a goal, honestly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Former Premier League footballer Jay Tabb finishe sixth when riding in the charity race at @wincantonrace yesterday. Read what he had to say afterwards \ud83d\udc47@CPFC<\/a> @ReadingFC<\/a> @Coventry_City<\/a> @BrentfordFC<\/a><\/p>\n