‘Brilliant’ Jerome heads Derby push
He may have cost a mere £1.5million but Cameron Jerome has taken Derby County a step towards the most expensive game in football.
Jerome’s fifth goal in four games has given Derby a slender advantage over play-offs favourites Fulham, who are facing the prospect of further frustration on this unforgiving route to promotion.
Fulham finished 13 points ahead of Derby in the Championship campaign but their record in the playoffs makes grisly reading – no wins from seven games and with only two goals scored.
Slavisa Jokanovic, their head coach, will bid to end the curse in the second leg at Craven Cottage on Monday but, for the moment, it is Derby who could erase their own reputation as promotion bottlers.
Derby are competing in the Championship shoot-out for the third time in five years and Jerome’s towering header has raised hopes of a trip to Wembley.
A January signing from Norwich, Jerome is in a rich vein of form and with promotion to the Premier League worth around £200 million, he could prove the difference for Derby.
“Cameron has been brilliant in recent games and he got the goal by doing what he’s been doing throughout his career,” said Gary Rowett, the Derby manager.
“We’re not getting carried away at all. I didn’t even let them have the music on afterwards because we need to be focused and recover.
“It’s a slim lead going into the second leg but, as we all know, that can be cancelled out in a second.”
Derby made the breakthrough 11 minutes before the break, with Jerome powering a header past Marcus Bettinelli from Craig Forsyth’s deep cross.
Fulham had been dreaming of automatic promotion this time last week after a 23-match unbeaten run, only to fall agonisingly short at the final hurdle.
That insipid performance at Birmingham last Sunday gift-wrapped second place to Cardiff and sentenced Jokanovic to another slog at the play-off roller coaster.
His team did respond, dominating for long periods, with Kevin Mcdonald striking the crossbar and Floyd Ayite wasting a decent chance from close range early in the second half.
Scott Carson, the former England goalkeeper, also produced a fine save to prevent Tom Cairney from finding the top corner as Fulham cranked up the pressure.
Derby resisted, with captain Curtis Davies a formidable presence in defence, but there is unquestionably more drama to come.
Jokanovic said: “It’s not the result we deserve but it’s part of football. We want to change the story and win the game on Monday.”