Just short of two decades ago, Rovers clinched promotion to the Premier League and have since spent all but two seasons in England’s top flight. Now as they battle the drop, we complete a three-day series on the club’s last 20 years by speaking to Brad Friedel, who was among the Worthington Cup heroes in 2002.

WITH a Worthington Cup final winners medal, four European campaigns and more than 350 appearances to his name, Brad Friedel had no shortage of good times in his eight-year Blackburn Rovers career.

The American international is regarded by many of the Ewood Park faithful as the club’s greatest ever goalkeeper and, after not missing a game in his last four seasons at the club, his place in the club’s record books is assured forever.

Now, as his current club Aston Villa and old employers prepare for the tightest relegation battle in Premier League history, Friedel looks back on where Rovers’ latest top flight adventure began and admits had promotion not been achieved in 2001 the last decade could have been a very different story.

In his debut Rovers season, after signing from Liverpool in November 2000 on a free transfer, Friedel played a key role throughout as Matt Jansen’s winner at Preston on the penultimate day of the season clinched their return to the top flight.

“We could not afford not to have gone up that season,” he said. “The TV contracts in the Championship were on the up but only for a short while. If the club had stayed in the Championship for another two or three seasons, it could have been desperate times.

“It was hugely important that we were promoted that season. We had to deliver, investment was put in and if we hadn’t managed it then, Blackburn probably wouldn’t be where they are today.

“The Burnley away game in December was a very big point in the season for us. We beat them 2-0 and I know on paper we were a better team than Burnley were, there is no doubt about that, but it was a hard game, a very hard game.

“The three points on that day, especially against our rivals, allowed the fans to be in a more jubilant mood from there on really.

“The Preston game was a completely different feeling. Bolton had started winning again and they were heaping a lot of pressure on us.

“It was more of a relief that we won it because our last game of the season was at Gillingham and that is the sort of place you don’t want to be going to needing a result. We just wanted to get it buried and it was more of a relief.”

Friedel was brought to East Lancashire by his former Galatasaray boss Graeme Souness after struggling to make much of an impact during almost three years at Anfield.

Rovers were not the only suitor with a host of top flight clubs from around Europe chasing his signature but, thanks solely to Souness, he plumped for Ewood Park and admits he now looks back with no regrets.

Friedel said: “Absolutely Graeme Souness was a big pull. It is not every footballer’s dream to go from the Premier League to the Championship. There were other clubs who were interested in myself.

“Clubs that were in the Premier League or other top leagues in Europe.

"It was at that time, without knowing a lot about Blackburn at the time, 100 per cent down to Graeme.

“At the time there were a few good things going for Blackburn Rovers. We had some financial backing, even though we were in the Championship through Sir Jack Walker, they hired a very, very good manager, and they also had a board – John Williams, Tom Finn, Rob Coar – who backed Graeme and allowed him to bring in some very good players.

“Most of us they brought in had Premier League experience, not just a little bit but quite a few games under their belt. So going into that promotion season they were able to have a team that was equipped not only to stay in the Premier League the following year but to give it a go and qualify for Europe. It was a fantastic time for the club.

“The greatest thing that I could remember about signing for Blackburn is when you walked through the doors on the first day you saw the family environment that surrounded the club and that still exists today I would think.

“It is second to none, it really is. You feel welcome the second you walk in and a lot of clubs aren’t that way. Maybe the passing of Sir Jack helped a little bit, maybe the fact everyone knew we had a very talented squad and that we should, not only could, get promoted back to the Premier League.

“There were a lot of players who felt very close to Sir Jack and yes they wanted to do it for him, there was that winning mentality. I know Flitty (Garry Flitcroft) among others, had a very good relationship with Sir Jack and it meant a tremendous amount to him when we went up and every time he put the shirt on.”

In Rovers’ first season back in the top flight, Friedel & co led them to their first major domestic cup triumph in almost 75 years, a 2-1 Worthington Cup final win over Spurs at the Millennium Stadium.

They went on to qualify for Europe the following season before struggling for Premier League form in 2003-04, with Souness not long after to move to Newcastle and be replaced by Mark Hughes.

Friedel said: “When we won the Worthington Cup we were third or fourth from bottom but I think we finished quite comfortably in the end. At the start we found goals hard to come by until we brought Andy Cole in and he and Matt Jansen went on a fantastic run together.

“To win a trophy is what every player is aiming for. At the time though it was one of those where the day was fantastic but you couldn’t think about it too much because we had a massive game the following Wednesday. It was a massive six pointer at the bottom of the table.

“The great thing about Blackburn always is that no matter why everyone was happy, the entire club was together. Very rarely did you see fighting in house, where at a lot of other clubs those things happened on a regular basis.

“The appointment of Mark Hughes was then a genius decision by John Williams and Tom Finn. The last thing they needed to do was tear apart the family feel at the club and Mark Hughes had been a part of that for two years himself as a player.”

The Rovers success story continued under Hughes’ control, with two more European campaigns secured despite increasingly fighting against the financial odds.

Now reflecting on his Rovers love-affair, a 39-year-old Friedel believes the last decade has to be regarded as a ‘golden era’ and insists the club will always retain that ‘special feeling’.

“The club has been one of the best run football clubs in the world,” he said.

“It is not because of the amounts of money they bring into the club but because of the standards they have been able to keep within the club on the budget they worked with.

“I know it is different now with the new group seemingly having more financial backing but all the years I was there it was run without a single owner, it was run by the trust.

“That is a difficult, difficult thing to try and balance. I thought they did a magnificent job dealing with the debts they had to incur in the two Championship seasons.

“Not only were they able to bring in good players but also get them in for the right transfer fees, put them on the correct wages, so the players were happy but the club’s finances were always intact and to keep moving forward, finish in Europe as much as they did. I think it is a fantastic story.

“The amount of fans Blackburn get through the gates on a game to game basis is not far off what Portsmouth would get and look at what has happened to Portsmouth and look at what hs happened to Blackburn.”