Chris Hutchings insists Clayton Ince isn’t guaranteed the No.1 spot despite his man-of-the-match performance at MK Dons.

The Saddlers boss recalled the 36-year-old on Saturday after Rene Gilmartin’s error helped Huddersfield recover from two goals down to win 3-2 last week.

It was his first game in a month following the death of his sister and Trinidad’s World Cup Qualifiers.

Ince pulled off several impressive stops, the best from Mark Wright’s close range header, after Jabo Ibehre fired in a 61st minute winner but Hutchings maintained Gilmartin pushed Ince all the way.

Hutchings said: “It is always a close call in selection and it is nice to have competition for places. I always said Rene would get some games. He has had those games and it has done his confidence and experience a world of good.

“It is a team performance and Rene has done very well in recent weeks, but I decided to change it and we will have to see what happens next week.”

Ince was rarely troubled before Ibehre’s 25-yard winner as the hosts rose from their slumber to try and salvage their fading automatic promotion hopes.

He twice denied Sam Baldock before brilliantly blocking former Saddler Wright’s six yard header.

“That is what he gets paid for and I expect him to do it,” said Hutchings.

“Rene has done it in the past. It is unfair to pick people out, as I have always said, but the back four did very well today and Manny and Gerrard were very good.”

Mark Bradley started in ‘the hole’ behind striker Ibehre and Troy Deeney, with Michael Ricketts out with an Achilles injury, but after a slow start, Hutchings was forced into a change which saw the Saddlers force their way into the game.

He said: “We tried to stay with the same formation we have had for the last couple of weeks but it wasn’t working and after 20 minutes we changed it to 4-4-2. We stemmed the flow a bit and got hold of the ball a bit, and we got our just rewards in the end.

“It was a good three points against one of the better teams in the division. If they had won all their remaining games they would probably have gone up. We are very pleased and it was been a hard working performance.

“I didn’t think we started particularly well. I thought we came into it better as the game went on in the first half. We showed some composure in passing the ball and we just had to make sure we passed it better in the second half.”

Meanwhile, frustrated Dons boss Roberto Di Matteo saw his troops consigned to the play-offs and was upset with his side.

He said: “I’m mostly disappointed with our performance. Obviously the result reflected the performance, but we really only got going after we conceded the goal but it was too little too late in the end.

“The goalkeeper made three fine saves but it was too little too late by the time we woke up, started to play and started to create some chances.”