Fine margins separated the two sides on the night as the striker spoke of his initial disappointment which was overshadowed by pride for what him, his team mates and staff have achieved this season.
“It is never nice to lose a game, especially with what’s at stake,” he told BBC Three Counties Radio. “We truly believe it was a winnable tie, there wasn’t anything in both legs as you could see. Probably off the balance of it, we had the better chances to win the tie but football is about taking those chances and unfortunately we weren’t able to do that.
“The lads are bitterly disappointed as you can imagine. To lose so late in the game, it is a body blow but immensely proud of all the boys, the efforts everyone has given this season and the progress the club has made.
"Immensely proud of everybody, the players, the staff, the supporters, the whole football club. Hopefully it is a football club that is progressing and going places.”
Following a remarkable sixth place finish in the Sky Bet Championship, a highest league finish for the football club for 30 years, Jerome focused on the highs from the 2021/22 season, reflecting: “It might sound a little bit too positive but you have to take some positives out of this season and the positives are this football club got to where it has got to because of all the hard work it does.
“The people associated with the football club, who run the football club, the people who are in charge of everything, there are really good human beings inside the football club and I can’t reiterate that anymore.”
After being denied the opportunity to thank the superb away support in person after the match, the striker ended by saying: “They travelled up in their numbers and obviously with what happened at the end of the game with their fans coming on the pitch understandably, we couldn’t go over but we’d like to thank them for being with us every step of the way and we hope we did them proud in some way this season. Hopefully next year we can kick on and give them more moments to cheer.”
