On returning to England in 2011, he spent a season with Conference Premier club Kidderminster Harriers, playing ten matches, and then joined Burton Albion, with whom he made his first appearance in the Football League.
[5] He was a regular on the bench for the reserves in the 2007–08 season, behind either Artur Krysiak or Colin Doyle, and picked up a Birmingham Senior Cup-winners' medal as an unused substitute.
[6] In February 2009, he was named on the bench for Championship matches against Coventry City and Crystal Palace when regular substitute Doyle was struggling with a back problem.
[4] He kept goal as Birmingham reached the semifinal of the FA Youth Cup, and his third and last appearance in the first-team matchday squad came when Maik Taylor was suspended for the visit to Watford.
[13] In January 2011, he joined Scottish League Second Division club East Fife on loan, to gain experience[14] but, as at Birmingham and Hearts previously, he appeared on the first-team substitutes' bench but never on the field.
[15] When a knee injury broke Lewis's run of 60 consecutive Conference appearances, Lyness "produced one fine save on a more than satisfying Harriers debut" in a 1–0 win away to Kettering Town.
[22] A hip injury prevented Lyness replacing the cup-tied Breeden for FA Trophy matches against Vauxhall Motors,[23] but he came back in for the next two rounds, and saved a penalty, albeit in a losing cause, against Luton Town.
Football League Trophy rules restricting the number of team changes from the previous match prevented manager Gary Rowett from including Lyness from the start of Burton's visit to Coventry City,[28] but he was brought on at half-time to replace Ross Atkins.
[28][29] He made his Football League debut on 23 October 2012, again as a substitute, replacing the injured Stuart Tomlinson with 11 minutes plus stoppage time left in a 1–1 draw with Port Vale.
[30] On his first League start, against Dagenham & Redbridge, he conceded a first-half penalty, which he then saved by turning it onto the post, but was unable to stop the shot from the rebound; Burton won 3–2.
[31] He kept his place until mid-January, when a positional error left him unable to deal with a looped shot from Adebayo Akinfenwa that gave Northampton Town a win.
Despite the arrival of Swiss under-21 international Benjamin Siegrist, signed on loan because the club had no goalkeeping cover apart from the 50-year-old Poole, Lyness kept his place in the starting eleven for the next match, away at Plymouth Argyle, and kept his third consecutive clean sheet.
[48] On 22 December 2021 Lyness was brought into the match day XI against Celtic following a spread of covid amongst the St Mirren Squad which forced 11 players to be deemed unavailable.
[53] On 12 July 2023, Lyness made his first appearance in European competition in a 2–1 loss against F91 Dudelange in the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa Conference League at the Stade Jos Nosbaum.