EVEN though he’s probably just played the pick of his 400 starts for Wanderers – you can count on Jussi Jaaskelainen to remain the ultimate professional.

You’d forgive the Finn a bit of gloating; after all he’d just conjured 20 minutes of the finest goalkeeping witnessed in the Premier League this season. But anyone who knows him, also knows that isn’t his style at all.

Barely 30 minutes had passed after the final whistle and the 33-year-old had already shifted his focus on to next weekend’s home game against Liverpool.

Jaaskelainen is modest to a fault. In fact, should he meet Phil Brown at the school gates this morning when they drop off their children, he probably wouldn’t even mention the result.

He emerged, albeit reluctantly, to talk about Wanderers’ second win in six games but refused to bask in personal glory.

“It was a special day because we have got three points,” he said. “They only had their chances in the last 10 minutes.

“We deserved to be 1-0 up so then it was a case of keeping the clean sheet.”

Keeping the clean sheet is an understatement. Jaaskelainen all but wrestled it from Hull’s grasp. But he still felt there was room for improvement.

“We gave the ball away a few times,” he said. “Towards the end of the game we tried to take shots from 40 yards when we could have kept the ball. They are things we have to do better.”

Jaaskelainen shrugged when asked if it was his finest performance in a Wanderers shirt, putting some of his work down to good fortune.

“Sometimes it’s the little things that go for you in games,” he said. “Earlier in the season, the ball might have bounced half a yard their way and their player would have got to it first.

“The way we have been working hard as a team we probably deserve that bit of luck because those things have not been going our way. Hopefully, these back-to-back wins are the start of something for us. We have to keep going.”

Matty Taylor’s second goal of the season was enough to earn Wanderers their second away win of the campaign – equalling their entire haul for last season.

Jaaskelainen puts the change in fortune down to his side’s new-found ability to score first.

“That first goal has been missing from our game,” he said. “We have been playing well but not since the last two games have we scored first. Then we got two good results.”

The long-serving keeper even took up cheerleading duties toward the end – stirring up the crowd who were chanting his name.

It was a very different atmosphere to the negative one that grabbed the headlines a few weeks ago but Jaaskelainen said the players were not fazed by the recent criticism of his manager.

“The fans’ reaction doesn’t mean a lot because at the end of the day, it is what we think in the changing room,” he said.

“Obviously if we don’t win, then fans will turn their back on us. All we can do is keep working hard and believe in what we are doing.”