Gary O'Neil: Goalkeeper competition helping Wolves

Gary O'Neil says the competition in the goalkeeper department has benefitted Wolves as he gets set to make the 'right call' on his number one.

Sam Johnstone had the shirt following his £10million move from Crystal Palace, but Jose Sa has done well on his return to the team amid Johnstone's adductor injury.

The Englishman is now available for tomorrow's clash against his old club, with O'Neil set to choose between Johnstone and Sa, and the head coach believes the battle between them has helped everyone improve.

"Him and Jose have both benefitted from the situation," O'Neil said.

"Sam hadn't played for a while at Crystal Palace and had a significant injury as well during that spell.

"He's come in and has had a small niggle, but he's trained well.

"Jose, since Sam has come in, has shown that he's not giving up his spot easily.

"Every day in training you can see a steely determination in him and in his performances.

"It's really good for the group that we have both of them pushing and Bentley has also been excellent.

"That department is in a really good spot and we need them to keep pushing each other.

"It's then down to me to make the right call."

Wolves now enter a crucial period of fixtures, facing Palace and Southampton in back-to-back home games.

And the head coach is full of praise for the supporters ahead of the crunch Molineux clashes.

He said: “I don’t want to keep asking too much of the fans. They’re an incredible group.

“They have been through some unbelievable highs over the last few years with the money that the owners were able to put in, and the journey they went on from the Championship to Europe.

“It was fantastic and I remember watching it on TV – they had some fantastic nights.

“From there the landscape has changed a bit. That can be difficult to adjust to as a fanbase because you’ve been privileged enough to be around those incredible highs and now they’re having to deal with a different situation.

“But they have embraced it unbelievably well and they show a fantastic understanding.

“They still deserve and demand a certain level of performance as they rightly should, because it’s a fantastic club and you need to earn the right to be a coach and a player at it.

“But they are with us – you can feel it – and it makes an incredible difference.

“Not so much to me, because I’m stood on the side and I can think clearly all the time, but to the players it makes a huge difference to have them right with them.

“Especially when it gets tough, it’s really important and we’re going to give them everything we can to stay with us.