SAINT JOHNSTONE stopper Joe Shaughnessy admits it was hugely frustrating to go out of Europe to Lithuanian minnows FK Trakai because they played them off the park.
The Perth side crashed out of the Europa League after home and away defeats to the Vilnius outfit, despite dominating for long periods in both legs.
It put the lid on a truly awful week for Scottish football which saw the country's third and fourth best teams last season – Rangers and St Johnstone – embarrassingly drop out at the first hurdle to teams from Luxembourg and Lithuania.
Former Aberdeen defender Shaughnessy netted in the home leg and twice came close to breaking the deadlock away, before Saints succumbed to a late goal from Trakai, who were reduced to 10 men in the second half.
And the 24-year-old Irishman accepts Tommy Wright's men should have done better. He said: "It wasn't really our night on Thursday. Nothing went right for us and it's frustrating. We controlled the game and were all over them, but without creating any real glaring chances.
"They didn't trouble us at all until the goal, which came from us chasing the game at the end. But our final ball let us down. We wanted to score because we felt if we did we would go on to beat them, but we just couldn't do it.
"We had enough possession and got into the final third plenty, but we just lacked that killer ball to open them up properly.
"It's disappointing and frustrating because we put a lot into it over the two legs and had some really good chances in the game at Perth. But things just didn't go for us.
"I felt that for three quarters of the tie we were better than them, but the first 20 minutes of the first leg has killed us. We left ourselves a huge hill to climb to get back into it, but it just wasn't to be.
"The damage was done in the first leg but even after that, with the amount of possession we had and the good positions we were in, we should have got the job done over there. It's just so disappointing to be out in the first round."
Inevitably, there will be another debate about the merits of playing summer football, with St Johnstone facing a match sharp team who are halfway through their season. Saints meanwhile, still have a month until the start of the Premiership campaign.
And Shaughnessy believes the timing of the game could have played a huge part in the shock outcome.
He said: "I have never played summer football so I can't talk about it too much. But I definitely think them being half-way through their season helped them in the first leg.
"It was our first competitive game for five weeks or so and I think that showed early on with the way we started the game. I think if we played them in October when we are a dozen games into our season we would definitely beat them.
"But that's not the way our season works, they were sharper than us for half an hour in the first half of the first tie and they've put us out. When you're in your season and people have been playing together,
you've gelled better. But we can't use that as an excuse because over the two game we should have been good enough to get through.
"I can't see us going to summer football in Scotland, even though it would help teams like us when we're in Europe. The season has always been the way it is just now and I don't think
they will change it."
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