City before managing St Neots Town. from 23 March 2009, until July 2010, leading the club to their most successful season for 40 years. He left the club briefly in January 2010, following the departure of chairman John Delaney, but returned after Delaney had been reinstated as Chairman. Lomas resigned from St Neots in July 2010 to pursue his ambition to manage at a league club. At the end of February 2011 he accepted the position of reserve team manager at West Ham United. St Johnstone In November 2011, Lomas signed a -year deal to manage Scottish Premier League side St Johnstone following the departure of Derek McInnes to English Championship team Bristol City. Shortly after signing the deal to become first team manager he was joined by former Northern Ireland goalkeeper and Lisburn Distillery manager Tommy Wright who had agreed to join the club as an assistant to Lomas. In his first season as manager of St Johnstone, Lomas took the club to a top 6 finish for the first time since 1999. After Hearts won the Scottish Cup, St Johnstone also qualified for the Europa League, entering the competition in the second qualifying round. Initially there was confusion about who their opponents would be, because of an appeal to CAS by Turkish club, Besiktas, who had been banned from this season's European competition by UEFA. Turkish club, Eskisehirspor were, however, confirmed as opponents of St Johnstone with the first leg to be played in Turkey on 19 July and the second leg at home at McDiarmid Park, Perth on 26 July 2012. Despite a slow start to the 2012–13 season after many changes to the squad – 12 players were out of contract during the summer – St Johnstone had an excellent September, drawing with Dundee United and winning the next four matches, the first against Celtic, ending Ross County's 40 game unbeaten run and beating rivals Dundee, as well as reaching the quarter finals of the Scottish League Cup. On 4 October 2012, Lomas was named SPL Manager of the month, the first time a St Johnstone manager had won the award. On beating the Manager of the Month "curse" in October to record 5th and 6th straight wins against St Mirren and Kilmarnock, Steve Lomas achieved the best run of results at St Johnstone since 1971, reaching second place in the SPL table behind Celtic. In