Jay Tabb: Footballer, rugby player, stableboy | OneFootball

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.

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.

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.

“It was devastating when I was told I wasn’t going to get a youth-team contract,” he admits.

“I 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.

“Geoff 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.

“It 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.”

The Bees were training in Tolworth at the time, just a stone’s 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.

“It was just carefree and fun. I loved being in the youth team there and, on the odd occasion you’d get to train with the first team, they’d definitely help you out.”

Safe from relegation, Brentford were playing only for league position at the end of the 2000/01 season, which concluded with two home games.

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.

“I 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.

“I'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.

“We'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’d get there one day, then all of a sudden, I got an opportunity.

“It 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!

“I had time to ring my mum and dad and a few friends and they all came down and watched the game. It was incredible.”

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.

“Wally was always quite careful to look after me because I was still really small and Division Two football was quite bruising at the time,” he says.

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.

Brentford exercised the option to extend Tabb’s contract by 12 months in the summer of 2003 and they were soon rewarded for their faith.

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.

A new contract, running until the summer of 2005, was duly drawn up and signed.

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. “Straightaway, he said: ‘You’ve got to play for me!'”

Tabb was instrumental in ‘The Great Escape’, 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.

“Martin came in and he was someone I got on with straightaway,” he says.

“I’m 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.

“He 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!

“He 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.

“I 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.”

His impressive performances in two campaigns where Brentford reached the League One play-offs naturally brought talk of moves to clubs in higher divisions.

“I never really paid attention to much of that,” he interjects. “You read stuff in the gossip columns, but I never had an approach from anyone.

“I 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.”

The conversation briefly turns to the second play-off semi-final defeats in 2006.

“Losing to Swansea was really hard to take because we probably should have been in the top two that season,” he adds.

“So, 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.

“It 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’s horrible to look back. I was so gutted.”

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.

“I was 22 and I was looking to play Championship football,” he admits.

“I 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.

“In 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’ve come in for me, I'd have said no because I loved my whole time at Brentford.

“As hard as it was, you’ve always got to do what’s best for yourself. At 22, in hindsight, I probably could’ve stayed and given it another go, but Coventry are a huge club and when they came in, I couldn’t really turn that down. You never know when your next opportunity is going to come around.

“I was so gutted to leave Brentford. Even now, it’s my favourite club I ever played for. It was the club that changed my life.

“A lot of Brentford fans - who I got on so well with - would’ve been disappointed I left, but I think a lot of them knew it was probably the right thing to do.”

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.

His mum sadly passed away in 2015 and, by that Christmas, he had not played a single game for three months.

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.

He was completely at peace with his choice - and retiring early, on his own terms, has allowed him to pursue his passions.

After a break, Tabb started working for his dad’s building firm and then played semi-professional rugby with Old Wimbledonians, before caddying for professional golfer Lauren Horsford on the Ladies European Tour.

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.

“The intention was never to try and be a jockey, it was purely just to work in racing,” he says.

“I was down there for two-and-a-half years and the buzz of going up the gallops is incredible. It’s just as good as scoring a goal, honestly.”

The 42-year-old is no longer involved in horse racing, though, and in the summer of 2025, he and his dad finished renovating the house in Stratford-upon-Avon where he lived in during his time at Coventry.

He is on the lookout for the next chapter now, which is bound to be an intriguing one, if the first decade or so of his career outside of football is anything to go by.

There is little interest in football these days, but the love remains for Brentford.

“It could have gone either way when I got released from Palace. It really knocked my confidence and if it wasn't for Brentford and Geoff, then who's to know where I'd have ended up?” he adds.

“I’d love to come back. I’ve got such admiration for what Brentford have done, and I always check the results. I’m just happy for the club and the fans because they are great and they deserved this long ago.”