Town manager Mick McCarthy has heaped praise on “fabulous professional” Jay Tabb. The Blues boss says the 31-year-old, the scorer of Town’s winning goal against Bolton on Tuesday, is “an absolute joy” to have at the football club.
"Tabby’s a fabulous professional footballer to have at your club and to play in your team," McCarthy said of a player who he believes is underrated by supporters.
"Is he ever going to score you 10 goals a season? Unlikely, he’s not going to do it. Is he going to pick holes in the opposition with passes? Not all the time.
"But I’ll tell you what he’ll do, he’ll beat somebody who is 6ft 4in tall in the air, he’ll win the tackle off him.
"Whether he plays left, centre, right, it doesn’t matter, he’ll do it diligently and professionally and he’s a diamond. He’s an absolutely joy to have in the football club.
"Whether you play him or you don’t play him, he gets on with it and does it every single week. We have got lots of them like that, but he’s an absolute joy to have in the club.”
He says during the 1-1 draw with his old club Brentford last Saturday the former Irish U21 international popped up all over the field: "That’s him. He’s all action, all energy and he is terrific. I’m not decrying him technically, because he has that as well, but he’s not Teddy Bishop, he’s different.
"But you can hang your hat on him every week, in terms of his level of performance and effort and what he does.
"From when he came here he’s played well. To be fair to Tabby, as we all know, I told him at the end of last season I was trying to change it and I brought Alex Henshall in.
"But he’s seen them all off, whoever’s come and played in his position. He’s been excellent. That tells you what a good pro he is, he gets his head down and gets on with it.
"He’s out of contract at the end of the season, but have I had any discussion with him about it? No. And he’s not sought me out to have a discussion, he just gets on with it. He’s been outstanding.”