It didn't take me long to decide whether or not to go on loan to Ipswich. In fact it wasn't really a consideration at all.

As much as I was flattered by the approach from my former boss Joe Royle, now manager at Portman Road, there was no way I wanted to go out on loan anywhere, least of all a First Division rival of ours.

Going on loan would have been of no benefit to me at all but even if the offer had been a permanent transfer I would have turned it down.

Quite simply, my job here is far from completed.

I have over two years to go on my contract and I came here with the aim of helping the team into the Premiership.

We still have a chance of getting into the play-offs and so to go on loan to a rival at this stage of the season would not say to the players, management or the fans ‘I'm here to fight for the cause'.

This is the time when we all need to come together and give all that we have in the hope of getting a promotion spot.

The gaffer, Steve Coppell, had notified me that Ipswich were interested and said I could quash the situation immediately or I could go home and think about it. For me there was nothing really to think about. I am happy where I am. I have a job to do and want to do it.

From a family point of view, I have moved everything except the kitchen sink from Manchester to Reading in order to make it work. A move away for three months would just make my life more stressful.

There's no doubting Ipswich are a good team and have a good manager, one I have a lot of respect for, and I am sure they will be in the top six come the end of the season. However, it just wasn't for me.

What was pleasing for me was to know that, while Reading were open enough to tell me of the approach, they also made it clear that they didn't want to see me go.

So where do I go from here? I have to get my head down and show that I was right to make the decision to come here in the first place.

I also want to show that Joe Royle, too, was right in coming in for me and wanting a quality player. I want people to say at the end of the season ‘I can see why they were after him'.

Aside from proving things to the Reading public, more importantly, I now have something to prove to myself.

Thus far I haven't produced what I expected to. Doing so is more important to me than anything.

I could say this or that is the reason why I feel this way but at the end of the day they would all just be reasons or, depending on who's reading this, excuses.

I've admitted I've fallen short and now I have to go out there and make sure I reach the standards I have reached elsewhere.

We have had a week off since our last match, a victory over Nottingham Forest.

In that time we have been doing an excessive amount of weights. The manager sees this as a time to strengthen ourselves both physically and mentally.

It's hard work and probably harder than when we have a game each week. When you have a match you have to be careful not to overwork people because players need that energy when they are playing. In those instances you just tick over through the week, and certainly if you have a midweek game.

We face Derby on Saturday and although we would have liked the game to have come sooner, considering the Forest victory was our first for some time, we have to look forward to it as they are struggling.

Our time off has given us the opportunity to work individually and collectively on our game and hopefully we can put that into practice at the weekend.