Keiron Cunningham returned to a hero's welcome as he inspired St Helens to a dramatic win over the champions in an epic contest at Knowsley Road.

The Great Britain hooker looked like he had never being away as he came back from five weeks out with a broken hand to steer his side to the top of Super League alongside Bradford.

International team-mate Paul Sculthorpe also made a fine comeback from injury with 18 points as his side finally overcame the challenge of the never-say-die Bulls.

Saints and Cunningham were at their devastating best in attack but the side's failure at the other end of the pitch allowed the equally fired up Bulls to stay in contention until the death.

Yet it was the visitors who made the better start when they capitalised on an early Sculthorpe error.

The Saints stand-off failed to deal with Michael Withers' sixth minutes run and Brandon Costin powered through to open the scoring.

Paul Deacon converted and Saints looked to be struggling as Robbie Paul almost caught them unawares with a lightning break from the restart.

But Saints soon exerted their authority and blitzed the Bulls with three tries in 10 minutes.

A strong challenge by Sonny Nickle set up Sculthorpe to level the scores as Cunningham sent him over and he duly added the extras.

Three minutes later he was in again after Cunningham broke from inside his own half and sent Sean Hoppe away down the right wing.

Saints quickly moved the ball inside and two tackles later Sculthorpe was celebrating again.

He then added the extra two points and the home side then had another six soon after when Cunningham sent over Darren Britt and Sculthorpe again converted.

But the Bulls regrouped after the onslaught and were handed an easy try back when Hoppe failed to deal with a Deacon kick and Costin went in. Deacon's goal left the game nicely poised 18-12 at half time.

Saints restored their 12-point advantage within five minutes of the restart and they moved swiftly up the field and Paul Wellens dummied his way over from a Sculthorpe's pass.

Again Sculthorpe improved the effort but the Bulls proved equally as devastating in attack as they hit straight back.

The vision of Deacon created the open after he spotted Mike Forshaw's run out of the corner of his eye and the loose forward dashed through to hand Michael Withers an easy try.

Deacon stroked home the conversion and cut the deficit to 24-20 with a penalty after John Stankevitch was sin-binned for tackling Daniel Gartner off the ball.

Saints initially had little trouble re-adjusting to their numerical disadvantage as they continued to do what they do best and attacked.

Another incisive move saw play quickly switched back to the other end of the field and Saints again cashed in as Darren Albert pounced on a Sculthorpe grubber kick to touch down by the post.

Sculthorpe kicked with his usually efficiency to extend the advantage to 10 but the Bulls then made the extra man tell as they again responded.

This time it was Tevita Vaikona who did the damage as he burst clear down the right from Gartner's pass and cut inside brilliantly for his 15th try of the season.

Deacon then slashed the lead back to four and the Bulls then spurned a glorious chance to reclaim the lead late on when Forshaw jinked his way through but passed into fresh air.

Forshaw's involvement ended soon after as he was sin-binned along with Nickle for fighting although Bulls substitute Lesley Vainikolo escaped punishment despite his apparent greater involvement in the incident.

Forshaw's error proved a costly one as Wellens wrapped up the win by touching down in the corner as the clock ran out.