Celtic boss Martin O'Neill has confirmed Sam Johnstone will get the chance to audition for the number one role over the next few weeks. The Bhoys have largely relied on Viljami Sinisalo as their number one, and the Finland international has done a solid job.
Johnstone has now played the last two games, and with Sinisalo having been pretty consistent, it has been surprising. The veteran keeper has struggled with his distribution, but he has done a solid enough job with his actual goalkeeping.
Ahead of Wednesday night's clash with Dundee United, O'Neill has confirmed that Johnstone will continue to get time to audition for the role, even with Sinisalo having played well, with the Celtic boss wanting to give both keepers the chance to stake their claim.
"I would like to know what Sam can do, and I think this is the whole point," O'Neill said. "I know exactly what Sinisalo can do now. He stepped into the bleach last year and did brilliantly for us.
"And I'd like to know so that in the next few weeks. And it would be nice for him to make my mind up about exactly what's in front of us between now and the end of the season."
He added: "Yes, I think the difficulty, obviously, with goalkeeping is that at some stage you know that you're going to make your mind up about it.
"And that's the thing. You can be a very good goalkeeper, and you can be sitting behind someone. And the one thing you don't want to do is that you don't want to stop people's progress in doing as well too. And most goalkeepers now are going on for a fairly decent age as well. So I think that's the thing.
"Sinisalo has come in, and I thought he's done very well for us. Of course, there's some games that naturally goalkeepers will make a few mistakes in. And what I would like to see over the next few weeks is who I think would be our number one."
As things stand, Sinisalo surely has the advantage based on how good he is with his feet and distribution, while Johnstone has clearly struggled. But it is true that the Wolves loanee hasn't had an extended opportunity to prove himself, which he now looks likely to get.
It's a risky move in some ways, but O'Neill is determined to give Johnstone his chance, and he must now take it.
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