Wolves keepers must put club first in battle

Wolves boss Kenny Jackett today ordered his two senior keepers to put the club first as he chose between them for the first time.

The Molineux head coach gave nothing away as to whether he selected fit-again Carl Ikeme or kept faith with Tomasz Kuszczak as he was probed by the media before today's clash at Nottingham Forest.

Ikeme emerged unscathed after a week of kicking in training to complete the final segment of his comeback from a broken bone in his foot.

Before today, Kuszczak had kept five clean sheets in 11 games and conceded 10 goals in Ikeme's absence as Wolves have maintained their two-points-a-game average.

And Jackett believes the experienced shot-stoppers will support each other whoever got the nod.

"I'm sure that will be the case and in the end we all get paid by the club to put the club first," said the boss. "That's the idea and part of being professional.

"There will be some personal disappointment if people don't play.

"But for us to be successful we're going to need a squad of 18-20 players of a similar quality and very good quality.

"Having two good goalkeepers and two experienced goalkeepers is a prerequisite of a successful team."

Jackett confirmed Ikeme is 100 per cent again.

"We left his kicking to the back end of this week when he could really strike through that ball without feeling any pain or problems," said the boss.

"He was fine with that on Wednesday and Thursday and all of his striking has been good so we're pleased to say he's okay.

"I'm delighted Carl is back so now we have our two senior keepers fit."

Jackett reported all six players who departed for international duty two weeks ago – Bakary Sako, Dave Edwards, Kevin Doyle, Dominic Iorfa, Kortney Hause and Lee Evans – reported back fully fit.

"Losing people in the international break can take a hold in your squad if suddenly you lose one or two players," said Jackett. "So we're at good strength, stronger in the goalkeeping department than two weeks ago, and that bodes well for a key period."

As of yesterday, Wolves had sold 2,650 tickets out of a 4,000 allocation for the trip to Blues next Saturday.