Jerome confident the Hatters are 'going places' despite play-off defeat to Huddersfield

Luton striker Cameron Jerome insists the Hatters are a club who are definitely ‘going places’ despite suffering the crushing disappointment of defeat in the Championship play-offs on Monday night.

A 1-0 reverse at Huddersfield Town saw Town beaten 2-1 on aggregate as the dream of playing in the Premier League next term was ended with a late goal by Jordan Rhodes, the Terriers going through to face Nottingham Forest in the final.

However, the experienced Jerome, who came out to speak to the press afterwards, rightly felt that the campaign should be viewed as a positive one, Luton finishing in sixth, six places higher than last season, with 13 more points to their name too.

He said: “The message is progression.

“It might sound a little bit too positive but you’ve got to take some positives out of this season.

“The positives are that this football club has got to where it’s got to because of the hard work it does and all the people associated with the football club.

“The people who are running the football club, the people who are in charge of everything, it’s just really good human beings inside the football club and I can’t reiterate that any more.

“The lads are bitterly disappointed as you can imagine, to lose so late in the game is just a body blow, but I’m immensely proud of all the boys’ efforts this season and the progress the club’s made.

"The players, the staff, supporters, the whole football club and hopefully it’s a football club that’s progressing and going places.

“The manager had a chat with the boys and said he’s proud of the group, not just the group, but the staff and everybody, who's been a part of it this year.

"It’s not nice to lose a game of football, especially with what’s at stake, but when it sinks in what we’ve achieved at this football club, it’s special and it’s progression at a football club that’s going places.”

“It’s tough coming out here and speaking about it but, I’m sure looking back, we’ve given as good as we’ve had tonight and we just fell short.

The forward, who made 37 appearances this term, scoring four goals, came off the bench at the John Smith’s Stadium in the second period on Monday, after starting Friday night’s 1-1 draw, but couldn’t find the net as Town, despite being the better side for long periods, went home empty-handed.

However, Jerome was confident that Luton can use the experience to help them come back next term and push for the top flight once more.

He added: “We just couldn’t get that goal and the first goal in a tie like this was always going to be crucial.

“Coming as late as it did, they shut up shop then and it was pretty much a difficult task from there on in.

"The boys will pick up the pieces and digest the result, maybe not now, but over the summer and realise what a good job we’ve done.

“Hopefully, we can come back strong next year, we can learn from this and we can take that disappointment and turn it into a positive.

"People would’ve written us off with where we were going to finish in the league, but the targets we set, we set big targets because we believed in the group, the players and the process and what this football club does and what it’s about.

“We’ll come back next year and hopefully come back stronger.

“We want to get to the next level and the football club is on a trajectory to do so.

"Whether it’s now, next year whether it’s the year after that, it’s progressing nicely.”