St Johnstone to name Lomas as manager

IT’S the worst-kept secret in Scottish football and today St Johnstone will finally unveil the successor to Derek McInnes.

As expected, former Northern Ireland international midfielder Steve Lomas will be confirmed as the tenth manager in veteran chairman Geoff Brown’s 25-year reign.

And, despite conjecture that he would be tempted to seek an assistant with knowledge of the Scottish game, the one-time Manchester City and West Ham star, who decided to hang up his boots after spells with QPR and Gillingham, will be joined by fellow countryman Tommy Wright.

The former Northern Ireland goalkeeper resigned as manager at Lisburn Distillery yesterday to pave the way for the Perth move. So it will be an all-Ulster duo who will be taking over from Derek McInnes and Tony Docherty, who have already started to turn around the fortunes of English Championship strugglers Bristol City, with four points from their last two away games against Barnsley and West Ham.

Lomas and Wright played together for Northern Ireland and were also team-mates at Maine Road. Both men pulled on the international jersey more than 30 times during their playing careers..

The Saints job will be a major step up for 37-year-old Lomas, whose previous coaching experience is limited to a short spell with the West Ham’s reserve team and managing non-league St Neots in Cambridge.

Wright has managed Distillery for two years and the Whites lifted the province’s League Cup last season.

Previously, he managed Limavady United and Ballymena and was a goalkeeping coach at Norwich City as well as Shamrock Rovers under Michael O’Neill.

Lomas will take his bow at McDiarmid on Monday in a televised SPL clash with Aberdeen. And the new boss will be Perth-based, with Brown determined to ensure he plays a key role for the club in the local community.