Shota Arveladze facing Hull City conundrum ahead of return to action

Shota Arveladze says he will use the international break to run the rule over goalkeeping duo Matt Ingram and Nathan Baxter.

Deciding who starts in goal for the visit of Huddersfield Town next Friday night when the Championship resumes is one of the key decisions facing the Tigers head coach over the next few days after Baxter returned from a thumb injury to take his place on the bench in last Saturday’s 3-1 home defeat to Luton Town.

Ingram started the campaign as number one at the MKM Stadium before former boss Grant McCann in a bid to stem a poor run of two wins in 16 games, opted to make a change and bring in Baxter ahead of the 2-0 away victory at Barnsley in November.

Baxter impressed as he kept his place in 13 successive games including Arveladze’s first game, a 2-0 win over Swansea, but has been sidelined since, handing the number one shirt back to Ingram, who has again shown why he was number one during last season’s League One title-winning campaign, and Arveladze says he’ll use the break to make a decision.

“We’re going to look forward over the next ten days and see what happens when we start training,” he told Hull Live, before going on to praise Ingram, who returned from a horror-fall at QPR which saw him hospitalised.

“I think Matt did well, he did his work really well (while Baxter was out),” the Georgian continued. “I don’t want to take anything away from him because the boy did good, he may have conceded three (against Luton) but I don’t think he could have done anything.”

City also have Harvey Cartwright pushing both Baxter and Ingram for a first-team spot, and the youngster was thrust into the limelight following that injury to Ingram at Loftus Road before being handed a first league start in the game