TWO-try Jonny Lomax reminded everyone on Friday night of the extra dimension he adds to Saints’ attacking play when he lines up in the red vee.

Despite a 14-month lay-off after a second knee reconstruction the 25-year-old Saints full back demonstrated that he has lost none of the pace or footwork that made him a genuine threat when he first established himself in Super League.

Saints boss Keiron Cunningham said Lomax had been walking around “with his head in the clouds” after his glorious return to the fold, but he will be down to earth in time for another crucial match against top eight rivals Castleford.

Despite his dream return to the fold Lomax’s progress will continue to managed such is his importance to Saints’ ambitions.

Cunningham said: “When you get him on the field you can see what he can do. For months we had been looking at him running in training and thinking ‘if only’ because he gives us such a different dimension.

“It is similar to what Wigan are going through at the moment at full back and they will be a different attacking team when Sam Tomkins comes back.

“Jonny does give us lots of attacking options, but we don’t want to look too far ahead. We will look at Castleford and then go from there. The longer we can keep our key people together then the better it will be.”

After playing just 25 minutes in the reserves, Lomax played the full game on Friday where he attacked

as a number one but defended in the three-quarters to conserve his energy given the full back position clocks up the most most distance in the course of a game.

Cunningham was not sure whether to carry that arrangement on for Sunday’s clash at the Jungle given the way he coped against Leeds.

“Jonny still did lots of kilometres on Friday which surprised me,” said the Saints boss.

“Every game is a challenge for him and it does suit us a little bit, but we have a good week of training this week and a good long turnaround which will allow us to get some time on the training field.”

Given the length of time Lomax has been missing, there was maybe a little bit of understandable anxiety on his return. But with four minutes he proved he was good and ready, showing the sort of instinctive support, clean break and dummy that was almost a carbon copy of the one he did in standing up Brett Hodgson in the 2012 play-off against Warrington.

Cunningham, however, was delighted but was not surprised.

He said: “Trust me, I have been watching the kid for the past 14 months and he is a really good professional athlete who trains very hard.

“He was due to come back a while ago but had a set-back with an unrelated injury.

“For the last three or four months, I have been watching him thinking ‘if he is coming off the back of two knee recons then I wouldn’t mind two myself’.

“He does add an extra dimension to our team but we have just got to take things slowly with Jonny and nurture him.

“The longer he stays fit the better it is for us as a club.”

After all the emotion has been released on his return, it is back down to earth on Sunday.

“When he first gets back on that field on Sunday the reality will hit him that this is what he does for a living. He is walking around with his head in the clouds at the minute and that is good for him; he has come back and his body feels good,” Cunningham said.