Wolves' Aaron McCarey looks set to pip Carl Ikeme to number one spot

Kenny Jackett today dropped a big hint that Aaron McCarey has won the battle of the keepers – as he declared his team is in a five-horse race for automatic promotion.

McCarey is sweating on his place for tomorrow's visit of Notts County with Carl Ikeme fully fit after recovering from a broken bone in his left hand that has kept him since New Year's Day.

Ireland Under-21 international McCarey has kept three clean sheets in his five Wolves games, the last four of which have been won.

And head coach Jackett said: "There's no need to change for the sake of it, but I'm pleased to have Carl available with this busy period coming up.

"I view Aaron as a senior keeper, so to have two senior keepers available is good. It would be very hard to drop Aaron because he's done very well."

Ikeme returned to full training on Monday and Jackett added: "We're very hopeful Carl will have no more problems. He looks very good in training."

Wolves remain second with a game in hand on third-placed Leyton Orient, who have lost three in a row. But Jackett insisted there can be no let-up.

"We've improved and you always need to keep improving," he said. "But you can't sit back and say 'we've done well'. A poor result for us and a good one for our rivals changes the mood.

"If Orient had won their last two games there would have been a five-point gap to make up.

"We have to look at these games, appreciate the table is tight and realise it's realistically five clubs going for two positions – ourselves, Brentford, Leyton Orient, Preston and Rotherham."

"We've got to make sure we secure one of those top two places."

Meanwhile, Wolves have a contingency plan in place in the loan window if either Nouha Dicko or Leon Clarke get injured.

"We've got some ideas if Dicko or Clarke were out," said Jackett.

"We also have Liam McAlinden and playing behind them, we have James Henry, Bakary Sako and Lee Evans and Dave Edwards.

"That group are all competing for the front four positions, depending on how we play tactically."