Jerome glad to see Luton bounce back from Blues defeat by beating play-off rivals West Brom

Experienced forward eager to highlight importance of Baggies triumph
Town striker Cameron JeromeTown striker Cameron Jerome
Town striker Cameron Jerome

Luton striker Cameron Jerome was eager to talk up Saturday’s 2-0 victory over West Bromwich Albion as it not only pushed the Hatters firmly into contention for the Championship play-offs this season, but also saw them respond to their disappointing defeat against Birmingham City last weekend at the first time of asking.

The win saw Town go above their out of form opponents and now sit eighth in the table, just two points off the top six, and with games in hand on Blackburn, QPR and Huddersfield, who occupy third, fourth and fifth position.

Nathan Jones' side had gone into the contest on the back of a 3-0 reverse at St Andrew's which saw them lose their five match unbeaten run in timid fashion.

Jerome, who got the scoring underway with his first league goal for the club, said: “The win is important as it means we leapfrog them and it was much needed after last weeks performance.

“We were all disappointed in our performance last week at Birmingham, especially the good run we’d been on since the turn of the year

“It’s really important we got back to winning habits, as here at Kenilworth Road, we know we can give anyone a game.

"First half I didn’t think we were as good as we can be or as good as we have been in previous games, but second half we really came into it and stepped it up to win the game.”

Luton did have the odd moment of concern in the opening 45 minutes, more often than not through their own doing though, keeper Jed Steer fumbling Karlan Grant’s shot wide after his poor clearance, while the attacker then hit the bar following Kal Naismith’s error when trying to pass across his own area.

Jerome, who was also denied by the woodwork moments after another good save by Steer from former Newcastle and West Ham forward Andy Carroll, continued: “We want to try and play out as well, we just got caught, a little bit of complacency and luckily enough the crossbar saved us our end.

"It was a good attacking move and my effort comes off the inside of the post, and gets put out for a corner, they’re small margins.

"This is football and on another day that goes in the back of the net and we’re 1-0 up, but we showed character to come out in the second half and take the game to West Brom.

“With the conditions being as they are and West Brom the quality they’ve got it was important for us to get in the ascendancy.

"The first goal of the game was always going to be crucial, once we got that, we grew in confidence and stature.

"You could see there was a little bit of disharmony in their team, a few arguing, so it played into our hands and fortunately we got the second goal through a fantastic finish from Allan Campbell.”

Although the Baggies came into the fixture on a poor run of form, no triumph in four and without an away goal since early December, Jerome knew it would never be easy against a side who were plying their trade in the top flight last term and have still kept hold of a number of their players.

However, despite the appointment of experienced manager Steve Bruce recently, they drew yet another blank, as Luton picked up a 13th league clean sheet of the season.

The former Birmingham forward added: “The quality is there to see throughout their squad and they’re just going through that sticky patch at the moment where they’re not managing to be as fluent and score goals.

"I thought our back five have been really, really good since we’ve gone to a back five.

"We defended magnificently and whoever has come into those positions has really put their body on the line.

"All the team takes pride in a clean sheet, so it’s magnificent to get another clean sheet, from the goalkeeper all the way to the guys at the front.

"Everyone puts a lot of effort in and it’s a real team effort.”