Birmingham City's Jerome says early-season hunch on Reading game was correct

May 7 2009 by Andy Walker, Birmingham Post

Birmingham City striker Cameron Jerome has revealed that he always knew that the Championship promotion race would come down to a thrilling decider at Reading.

It has been four days since automatic promotion was clinched at the Madejski Stadium and the Birmingham squad is gradually starting to come to terms with the fact that they will be playing amongst football’s elite next season.

As did the rest of their promotion rivals, Birmingham had numerous opportunities to secure their immediate return long before the nerve-jangling encounter in Berkshire.

However, the script appeared to have already been written as Birmingham always looked destined to go head to head with Steve Coppell’s Royals for a place in the top flight.

Jerome, who is bracing himself for his second taste of the Premier League having played a part in Birmingham’s last promotion-winning campaign, has admitted that as soon as the fixture machine churned out Reading on May 3 he knew it would go right to the wire.

“At the beginning of the season we said to ourselves that Reading would be the game that decided promotion, we always knew it would be a difficult place to come for the last game of the season but I think the boys were professional about it,” said Jerome.

“We made hard work of it but we were focused at Reading, we knew we had a job to do there and better Sheffield United’s result but that didn’t end up mattering, it was all about us and we were in the driving seat. We went there and did a great job, the boys have been really professional. I thought we acquitted ourselves brilliantly, we got two early goals, we were a bit disappointed to concede a goal but nevertheless we held on and that is all that matters.”