The former England Under-21 international moved to the Madejski Stadium in August last year in a swap deal that saw South Korea international Seol Ki-Hyeon move to Fulham.

But the 23-year-old had to wait until club captain Graeme Murty was injured last month before finally getting a run of games in his preferred position of right-back.

He said: "If you aren't picked for 20 games it's hard because that's a good four months of the season. Some days I wasn't even in the 16 when we were travelling away and I was watching Soccer Saturday at home. It was frustrating.

"You want those people to be talking about you and saying what a good player you are but at the same time it makes you hungrier and more focused to make sure you stay there once you get in the team.

"You have to be confident when you get the chance to perform and do what you love to do. I love playing and performing in front of crowds. I am in the first team arena and want to make sure I keep it that way by helping the team and being a positive part of it."

The Royals can take a significant step towards securing safety in the Premier League by beating Birmingham on Saturday, with Alex McLeish's side arriving in Berkshire one place below and with one point fewer than their hosts.

Steve Coppell's side's fortunes have picked up following a club-record sequence of eight successive defeats and Rosenior was confident they would achieve safety before the final round of fixtures.

He said: "Every game until the end of the season is going to be the biggest game until we get ourselves out of it.

"We have got to be aim to be out of the relegation battle before the last two or three games and if we apply ourselves like we have done in the last two or three games then we have a really good chance of doing that.

"Losing eight games in a row is going to affect anyone's confidence but we have come back and regrouped."

Birmingham, who have lost just once in their last six games, will be thinking the same way and Rosenior is wary of the threat posed by his former England colleague Cameron Jerome.

He said: "He is a good player. He is young, quick and strong and has a great finish on him. And now he is in the Premier League he doesn't want to come out."

Rosenior revealed that it was not just goals that Jerome was hungry for.

"When we were with the Under-21s he used to eat everything. Everyone else had a choice of three desserts but he had all of them. Every time we came down he would be there first munching on a banana."