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Imagine the scene: face-greyed, gasping for air, the contents of breakfast deposited on a nearby grass verge and the only sound I could hear was the cackling laughter of Wanderers’ former goalkeeping coach Fred Barber.
Of course I hadn’t been daft enough to accept an offer to train alongside Jussi Jaaskelainen and Adam Bogdan in the Dutch town of Venlo – but fair play to Rob Urbani, then a fit and eager young member of the Wanderers press team for giving it a go.
I felt partially responsible for Rob’s agony at the time as I’d been winding Fred and his assistant Neil ‘Taff’ Edwards up over how easy goalkeepers had it, compared to the outfield players. But seeing Jussi and co up close, my mind was changed completely.
Jaaskelainen was already in his pomp when I took over the main job of covering Wanderers and so I hadn’t seen his more awkward years getting to grips with the English game following his arrival in 1997.
After wrestling control of the number one (or in his case 22) jersey from Keith Branagan – that other prince of Bolton keepers – Jussi had shown he was one of the best shot-stoppers in the business.
For proof, take his double save from Paul Scholes and Andy Cole in 2001 as the Whites stunned Old Trafford.
But it was in accompanying the press box doyen Gordon Sharrock to Ewood Park in 2006 I first realised what all the fuss was about.
Ivan Campo had given Bolton the lead on the hour but Blackburn, then under Mark Hughes’ tutelage, just kept going.
The pressure finally told when Quinton Fortune made a clumsy challenge on Jason Roberts and Rovers had a chance to grab an equaliser with three minutes to go.
The press box – as is usually the case when a late goal threatens to ruin everyone’s carefully-crafted intro – went immediately on edge.
Jussi, as calm as you like, walked back to his line, stared Benni McCarthy straight between the eyes and blocked his spot-kick with a well-rehearsed dive to his left.
Intros saved, Wanderers could wrap up the win. No sooner had the game been restarted, however, and Roberts went tumbling again, this time over the leg of Gary Speed.
Somewhere in the melee Kevin Nolan was red-carded for dissent.
Sunday-afternoon deadlines can be a nightmare, and by this point grown men were crying into their laptops, knowing another swift re-write was at hand.
Yet, down on the pitch the Big Finn stood motionless on his line, channelling out all the emotion. McCarthy had passed the buck to Roberts and Ewood Park expected a point from this Lancashire derby.
Roberts struck his penalty well but Jaaskelainen had guessed correctly.
Most importantly, his parry seemed to defy physics like one of the batons in Pong, sending the ball back in the opposite direction to safety rather than back in front of the unguarded net.
Oh, how the Wanderers fans celebrated. For me – then relatively new to all this Premier League excitement – all I could think to do was applaud.
A few years later I watched Jussi keep out Phil Brown’s Hull City with another display which bordered on the impossible.
I still remember the pained expression on Browny’s face as he walked out of his post-match press conference and towards the Bolton press pack he knows so well. He slumped against the wall, loosened his club tie and said: “How the hell did we not score?” Or at least words to that effect.
Jussi could moan for England, or Finland, as his standards were always sky high.
He didn’t always appreciate being put up for press duties after a game but would always have a statistic or two up his sleeve, especially when it came to keeping clean sheets.
He didn’t even seek out the spotlight in his testimonial year, which raised a huge amount of money for local charities.
His life revolved around his family, based in Bolton, and football, and continues to do so even after hanging up his gloves.
Jaaskelainen should have got closer to Eddie Hopkinson’s all-time appearance record at Bolton but did not look comfortable in a different training environment fostered by Owen Coyle.
His mind had been made up to join Big Sam at West Ham long before Wanderers’ relegation was confirmed.
Those final months did cast a slight shadow over his legacy and it is also a shame that when Jaaskelainen left the Hammers a few years later, there was no reconciliation.
But as the Big Finn announced his retirement on Thursday my first thoughts were not of contract wrangles or bitterness, it was of the roar from the travelling fans at Ewood Park, the look on Phil Brown’s face and the sound of Fred Barber chuckling as poor Rob was feeling worse for wear.
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Of course I hadn’t been daft enough to accept an offer to train alongside Jussi Jaaskelainen and Adam Bogdan in the Dutch town of Venlo – but fair play to Rob Urbani, then a fit and eager young member of the Wanderers press team for giving it a go.
I felt partially responsible for Rob’s agony at the time as I’d been winding Fred and his assistant Neil ‘Taff’ Edwards up over how easy goalkeepers had it, compared to the outfield players. But seeing Jussi and co up close, my mind was changed completely.
Jaaskelainen was already in his pomp when I took over the main job of covering Wanderers and so I hadn’t seen his more awkward years getting to grips with the English game following his arrival in 1997.
After wrestling control of the number one (or in his case 22) jersey from Keith Branagan – that other prince of Bolton keepers – Jussi had shown he was one of the best shot-stoppers in the business.
For proof, take his double save from Paul Scholes and Andy Cole in 2001 as the Whites stunned Old Trafford.
But it was in accompanying the press box doyen Gordon Sharrock to Ewood Park in 2006 I first realised what all the fuss was about.
Ivan Campo had given Bolton the lead on the hour but Blackburn, then under Mark Hughes’ tutelage, just kept going.
The pressure finally told when Quinton Fortune made a clumsy challenge on Jason Roberts and Rovers had a chance to grab an equaliser with three minutes to go.
The press box – as is usually the case when a late goal threatens to ruin everyone’s carefully-crafted intro – went immediately on edge.
Jussi, as calm as you like, walked back to his line, stared Benni McCarthy straight between the eyes and blocked his spot-kick with a well-rehearsed dive to his left.
Intros saved, Wanderers could wrap up the win. No sooner had the game been restarted, however, and Roberts went tumbling again, this time over the leg of Gary Speed.
Somewhere in the melee Kevin Nolan was red-carded for dissent.
Sunday-afternoon deadlines can be a nightmare, and by this point grown men were crying into their laptops, knowing another swift re-write was at hand.
Yet, down on the pitch the Big Finn stood motionless on his line, channelling out all the emotion. McCarthy had passed the buck to Roberts and Ewood Park expected a point from this Lancashire derby.
Roberts struck his penalty well but Jaaskelainen had guessed correctly.
Most importantly, his parry seemed to defy physics like one of the batons in Pong, sending the ball back in the opposite direction to safety rather than back in front of the unguarded net.
Oh, how the Wanderers fans celebrated. For me – then relatively new to all this Premier League excitement – all I could think to do was applaud.
A few years later I watched Jussi keep out Phil Brown’s Hull City with another display which bordered on the impossible.
I still remember the pained expression on Browny’s face as he walked out of his post-match press conference and towards the Bolton press pack he knows so well. He slumped against the wall, loosened his club tie and said: “How the hell did we not score?” Or at least words to that effect.
Jussi could moan for England, or Finland, as his standards were always sky high.
He didn’t always appreciate being put up for press duties after a game but would always have a statistic or two up his sleeve, especially when it came to keeping clean sheets.
He didn’t even seek out the spotlight in his testimonial year, which raised a huge amount of money for local charities.
His life revolved around his family, based in Bolton, and football, and continues to do so even after hanging up his gloves.
Jaaskelainen should have got closer to Eddie Hopkinson’s all-time appearance record at Bolton but did not look comfortable in a different training environment fostered by Owen Coyle.
His mind had been made up to join Big Sam at West Ham long before Wanderers’ relegation was confirmed.
Those final months did cast a slight shadow over his legacy and it is also a shame that when Jaaskelainen left the Hammers a few years later, there was no reconciliation.
But as the Big Finn announced his retirement on Thursday my first thoughts were not of contract wrangles or bitterness, it was of the roar from the travelling fans at Ewood Park, the look on Phil Brown’s face and the sound of Fred Barber chuckling as poor Rob was feeling worse for wear.
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