Jerome insists 'hungry' Adebayo is now getting his just rewards for Luton

Hatters forward Cameron Jerome believes that a ‘hungry’ striker Elijah Adebayo is now getting his deserved rewards in front of goal this season.

The 24-year-old had struggled in the early stages of the campaign, failing to score in his initial 10 outings, with both Harry Cornick and Cauley Woodrow given their opportunities alongside the in-form Carlton Morris.

However, injuries to the pair meant that following the recent international break, Adebayo was back to lead the line alongside Town’s record signing, and he was heavily involved in the opening own goal against Hull City.

Last term’s leading marksman followed that up with a brace in the 3-3 draw with Huddersfield, making it three in three games when opening the scoring during Luton's 3-1 win over QPR on Saturday.

Jerome, who at 36 now, has seen it all during his career spanning nearly two decades, was happy to pass on any advice he could, saying: “I’ve been there as a striker myself and you can’t quite put your finger at times on why things aren’t going for you.

"But fair play to Elijah, after the international break he came back hungry.

"I think he just needed to rest and get away from the environment for a little bit, come back, and you could see the week leading to the Hull game, he was brilliant in training.

"Then in the Hull game he was brilliant, unlucky not to get the goal and then against Huddersfield, he gets two goals.

"Then he gets his goal today, everybody was saying you’ve just got to keep going, keep persevering, keep working hard and you do get your rewards as football is swings and roundabouts and eventually the good times will come back.”

With Adebayo now forging a fledgling but exciting partnership with Morris that is starting to get the attention of the rest of the Championship, plus manager Nathan Jones, Jerome will still have an important part to play though, as proved on Saturday.

On for the final 23 minutes, he helped wrest the initiative firmly back into the hosts’ favour, making it 2-0 with a strike that has now been awarded to him by the Dubious Goals Committee after originally going down as a Jimmy Dunne own goal.

Discussing his role in the impressive victory, he continued: “It’s about aggression, getting on the front foot, especially here at Kenilworth Road with the fans behind us and that’s what the manager demands.

"We can’t do that all the time for 90 minutes, that’s why you’ve got to utilise the squad and bring fresh legs on to keep that momentum and that ability to go out and press teams, get after teams and be aggressive.

“That’s what we are, that’s what we’re about.

"It’s well documented from the manager, he uses the team and the squad, there’s no individuals, there’s no stand-out star here, it’s a big team effort, week in week out.”

The triumph was Luton’s first over QPR just January 2006, as they had taken just one point from their six meetings since returning to the Championship in 2019, with Jones admitting he had used the R’s celebrations from their 2-1 victory at Kenilworth Road back in March as motivation ahead of the game.

Jerome confirmed that the players had wanted to get one over on their West London opponents too, as he said: “They beat us twice last year and we were probably the better side in both games.

"It was just fine margins and moments in the game where we switched off and we were ruthlessly punished.

"They’re a good side, we know that, they’re a good footballing side, but they’re a side that we would love to play against and we showed that.

"How we went about the game and how we approached the game and up until the second half they didn’t really have any moments that caused us any problems.

"One or two little bits of concentration at the end from set-plays allowed them to make the scoreline a little bit closer than it was, but we had the better moments, had the better play, most of the pressure, so overall it was a solid result against a decent footballing side in QPR.”

Meanwhile, it was just Luton’s second home success of the season, as they had drawn four of their seven previous matches, which was something Jerome knew needed to improving, adding: “We try and pride ourselves on our home form and although we’ve not been beaten much at home, we’ve had a couple of frustrating results that have turned into draws and we’ve not managed to win the game.

"It’s a great sign of character, it was a good test, QPR are a good footballing side, they’re up there in the top couple of teams at the minute and they’re on form as well, so it’s much deserved victory.

"I thought we were magnificent, especially first half.

"If we’d have got the second goal a bit earlier, it would have been a bit more comfortable for us.”