Holbrook pleased to have extra options

St Helens’ boss Justin Holbrook faces a selection headache ahead of Friday’s home game against Widnes, but it’s a problem he is happy to contend with.

Jonny Lomax returned to the Saints’ line-up at Castleford on Sunday, and with Theo Fages expected to come back into the reckoning this week Holbrook has some big decisions to make.

“It was great to have Jonny back,” said Holbrook. “He was a bit rusty I guess, but I suppose you would be after not playing a lot of games so he will definitely be better for the run.

“Each week he plays he will get better and better, so it’s great to have him back.

“It was disappointing that Theo got the head knock the week before and we’ve got to look after his welfare ahead of rushing him into a game so that’s the reason he didn’t play on Sunday, but he’ll come back in.

“We’ve got Jonny there so we’ve got a tough decision for someone to miss out, but that’s a good decision to have to make.

“Unfortunately 18 won’t go into 17, but that’s a good position I’m in and I’ve got to make a tough call – that’s just the way its got to be.”

Saints face a Widnes side in buoyant mood after recording back-to-back victories, but Holbrook is focused on ensuring his team bounce back from Sunday’s narrow defeat at the hands of the league leaders.

“It’s going be great – it’s good to be back at home,” he added. “I really enjoyed playing there the other week against Wigan, so it’ll be good to get back home against another local derby team.

“We’ve just got to keep worrying about week-by-week – we can only focus on Widnes this week and that’s the most important thing for us.

“We need to play well this week and then we can look ahead to Huddersfield, but for now we’ve just got to knuckle down and focus on this friday.

“It’ll be great for all the fans to come and give the boys the support because while we came up short on Sunday we definitely tried hard to the final play of the game, so the effort’s there. We’ve just got to improve the execution.”