SAINTS welcome back scrum half Matty Smith for his first Super League game in the red vee since his return from Wigan.

The off-season signing has fully recovered from the broken leg he sustained in the pre- season friendly against Widnes and will drop straight back in to the number seven shirt for Friday night’s home game against Warrington.

And off the back of Saturday’s win in Perpignan, Saints boss Keiron Cunningham expects their star half back’s return to aid the team’s improvement after a rocky start to the campaign.

Cunningham said: “Matty has trained for a couple of weeks now and had the Catalans game been at home, rather than mean jumping on a plane, he would have played in that.

“He is fit, able and ready to go.

“We are all excited because we brought Matty for a reason but have been running around without him having seen what he can do in pre-season.

“I am relieved for the players because I know what he will bring to the squad.”

Saints’ win against Catalans stopped a three-game losing run and has helped relieve some of the pressure - if only a little.

But they need a good home display against a Wolves side who, although currently sat pointless at the foot of the table, have a remarkably good record on Saints’ home turf.

Smith’s return comes at a good time for both the player and the team.

Cunningham added: “We are not talking about Matty being the saviour – but there are fine areas of the game, margins where the game is won or lost.

“Matty Smith limits those fine margins for you. His game management, composure and control in really tough situations has been a feature of his play.

“You kick yourself that from such an horrendous tackle we lose a player, but things happen for a reason and I am happy with the guile and steel we have about what we do now.

"I am happy that they are putting the effort in for each other.

“Now that they have a bit more spring in their steps, that will help Matty come back into the side.”

There are no comparisons between Smith’s injury and the horrific one suffered by his scrum half predecessor Luke Walsh in 2014, which took a while to recover from.

“Matty is fine – he looks 100 per cent and you would not even know what he has done.

“Walshy had an horrendous broken leg and he did feel the effects of that for a long while.

“There was a lot of pressure rising on Matty – coming back to his hometown club, but now he is ready and we are looking forward to unleashing him on Friday.”