JUSSI Jaaskelainen's star is in the ascendancy. National awards, an international recall and the inevitable transfer speculation which put a £4 million price tag on his head!

But it was Sam Allardyce who offered the most significant endorsement of the quality of his keeper.

Dismissing the tabloid tittle-tattle touting him as a Middlesbrough target as "malicious" and rubbishing the reported valuation "he's worth a hell of a lot more than that!", the Wanderers' boss summed up the Finland man as "a proven Premiership goalkeeper".

For his part, Jaaskelainen epitomises the spirit and the work ethic in the Reebok camp that the manager and players believe can sustain them as the Premiership pressures mount.

They are the factors - above all others - to which Wanderers' early-season success has been attributed and, despite the disappointment of a second successive home defeat, they are still powerful forces.

Jaaskelainen - in Germany for tomorrow's final World Cup qualifier which every England fan hopes will not have a bearing on our qualification hopes - reckons: "We are all playing for each other and that is a major factor behind our recent success against the big spenders like Liverpool, Leeds and Arsenal.

"We may not have the big names but the fact that every single member of our squad is working for the others mean that we're still able to get the results we want.

"Add to that the fact that every single player in this team works as hard as possible and you can maybe see why we have done so well against the bigger teams in the league."

Jaaskelainen, speaking on his personal web site, praises Allardyce for striking the right balance between established players and new faces. "The manager wants everyone to be a good team player and a hard worker," he says, "and that's been shown in the signings he's made so far.

"But it's not just the new blood that has helped us to the top of the Premiership. We also benefit from the fact that we still have much the same players here as we did last season and that's a real advantage.

"Some teams go out and spend millions and millions on new players to strengthen their squads after winning promotion to the Premiership but we have kept our squad pretty much the same and it's really worked for us.

"We all know how each other plays and we all know how to work for each other and that makes things easier for us on match days.

"When you have a lot of new faces all coming in at once it can be hard to get a system going in the team for a while. But we haven't had that problem.

"Any players that have been signed have to work very hard to even get a chance in the first team and when they get there, they have to work hard to stay there."

Allardyce, meanwhile, has rubbished reports that Middlesbrough are interested in Jaaskelainen. "These days I'd here it from an agent first but I've heard nothing from anyone, least of all, Steve McClaren.

"It's just another one of those malicious reports."