Carl Ikeme delighted with Dominic Iorfa and Kortney Hause form

Kenny Jackett's side have been unbeaten in six league games since the young defenders were pitched in together, with the team conceding just two goals in that spell.

And Ikeme, who has kept 11 clean sheets this season, praised the influence of the pair, who are both 19 and taking their maiden steps in the Wolves first team after loan spells at Shrewsbury and Gillingham respectively.

"The two lads that have come in have taken to it straightaway and just look really comfortable," said Ikeme.

"Kortney's been out on loan playing first-team football and Dominic's been training with us for most of the season so they were well prepared.

"Everyone knew they were good players and maybe their chance came quicker than they expected after our bad run, but they've definitely grabbed it.

"They've made a really positive impact."

Scott Golbourne, who has played just once in the last 17 games due to losing his place to Tommy Rowe then a persistent foot injury, is set to be available to return for Saturday's visit of Charlton.

But Ikeme admits the club's senior left-back is by no means going to claim an automatic place in the side.

"There's good competition throughout the defence now with players who can't get in at the moment and Scott Golbourne coming back from injury as well," he said.

"It's good to know if anything did happen to anyone there's someone else standing by to come in who has done well for us."

Meanwhile, Ikeme has predicted plenty more tight games as the Championship winds up for the run-in.

Twenty of Wolves' 26 games so far this season have been settled by a goal or less, while it took until the 86^th minute for Dave Edwards to get the breakthrough against Blackpool on Saturday before they won 2-0.

And Ikeme reckons there will be more tense times ahead.

"I think a lot of the games now are going to be even tighter and cagier because of a different emphasis from teams trying to get the right results," he said.

"It's got to that point now that people are fighting for points for all sorts of reasons, whether it's to get up into the top positions or fighting to move away from the bottom.

"A lot of the games could be like the ones against Blackpool, especially at Molineux when we've been on a good run and teams might not open up too much against us.

"It's going to be a tense second half to the season as it always is in this division because it's so close between the teams and everyone is aiming for something."

Wolves' recent turnaround sees them still eighth but within a point of the play-off zone and eight points off the top spot.

But despite the improvement in results, Ikeme insists he and his team-mates aren't taking their foot off the pedal.

"No one is getting carried away with a few good results," he maintained.

"It's good we're able to think about looking up the table and catch the teams above us and everyone is feeling positive, but there's a lot of work to be done yet.

"The aim is to get promoted and that hasn't changed.

"But every team in that top eight will be saying the same thing and a few below as well because any team that puts a run together has a chance of getting in the play-offs.

"We just need to take it game by game and see where we are in February and March.

"Hopefully if we're still in the mix we'll kick on and get promoted."

Ikeme believes a return to the basics is behind their improvement.

"We've gone back to basics and have been more keeping more clean sheets which has given us a better chance to stay in games and pick up points," he added.

"And with that we've managed to nick a few 1-0 wins.

"It's been a good response from us after what happened in November which was a massive disappointment.

"We'd been fairly solid up until then and so it was a shock to everyone to be leaking goals so much but that can happen in the Championship.

"We got beat by some very good teams as well but we shouldn't have beaten in the way we were and by that amount of goals.

"It's been a team effort to bring about the improvement in results.

"It's not about everyone trying more because everyone was trying as it was, but maybe just focusing on the foundations and keeping the ball out of the net above anything else.

"That was the base, not conceding goals, and then from there we could start playing our football."