I went to Cardiff under Russell Slade where I thought I was going to play but he said afterwards that I was a development project... it annoyed me a bit because I was looking for the one thing I needed, first-team football, and I thought I was going to get it there. So I went out on loan to AFC Wimbledon - where I broke my nose and got concussed in my third game. I don’t remember a thing about it to this day and that’s despite seeing the video play back. I don’t know how it happened.

But Rotherham was the first place I found a home in football. At other places I always felt I was playing for my parent club and not the team I was in. But at Rotherham I really settled down and became a main part of the team and at last I got that regular first-team football I knew I needed. When I first got in there, I think they thought I had played a lot more than I had... I was held up as someone who had already played 100 times but I had only made 20, 30 appearances at that point. But it was great. I got a place just by the ground, the people took me to their heart and made me feel at home and of course we got involved in a promotion season which was massive. We kind of knew what we were doing and hit our form just before Christmas and we flew up the table thinking we could even get top two. In the end we finished fourth and made the Play-Offs but we got past Scunthorpe and then Shrewsbury in the final after extra-time and the feeling... it’s one of the best I can imagine. It was like the whole town turned out for us when we got back and it’s great to see how much a football team can bring to people. Seeing that huge amount of joy being experienced by a community was unforgettable.
Slade pissed him off and he was always looking for a way out. He quite rightly buggered off and built his career as a first teamer. No regrets from me.