SCOTTISH football’s Europa League record so far this summer reads five games, one win, three defeats and a draw.

There can't be too many other countries barring the real minnows - and, yes, I know how that sounds these days - with such a poor return.

Two out of our three teams which qualified for the competition, Rangers and St Johnstone, are already out, having respectively lost to Luxembourg’s fourth best side and a club few had heard of from Lithuania.

And then on Thursday evening, Aberdeen continued the trend by drawing at home to Siroki Brijeg who finished seventh in the Bosnian league and are in Europe courtesy of a cup final win.

Sometimes in football, consistency is not a good thing.

Aberdeen, the established second force in the Premiership for three seasons, would have had little complaint had Siroki left Pittodrie with a win. The Bosnians, while far from world beaters, created more chances and were by the far the superior side over the last half hour.

Derek McInnes’s men could, of course, still go through. They are far better than they showed on Thursday night and will have another five or six days of working together. Plus, Siroki are clearly an average lot, and therefore a beatable side themselves.

But the 1-1 result means that it would come as no real surprise if the third qualifying round of Europe’s second tier competition had not one Scottish representative.

This is a debate for summer football free zone, you'll he happy to know.

Although the argument for moving the season has little or nothing to do with the weather but, rather, its about our teams being far better prepared, in theory, to take on and defeats the sides they annually lose to if they were well into a competitive campaign.

The debate is as weary as the results are.

For Aberdeen, the performance of goalscorer Ryan Christie was the one real big bright spot. The on-loan Celtic player looked capable of creating something almost every time he got the ball and also took his goal well.

The 22-year-old still believes, as well he should, that this tie is still there for the taking.

“There is still a massive game coming up in this next match,” said Christie. “I am happy it is over two legs and I am still confident we can go out there and turn this around. We did not put enough pressure on their defensive line. It was something we do not do over the 90 minutes.

"There were plenty of positives to take from Thursday night. We still think we can go out there and go through. We are confident we can score away from home.

"For my goal, a lot of credit has to go to (goalkeeper) big Joe Lewis. It was an incredible kick. It is hard to work on that in training.

"As soon as the goalkeeper comes to collect a cross I like to make a forward run and Joe always seems to find me. More often than not he manages to put it in my path. It was a superb kick from him and I was happy to get on the scoresheet.

"My first thought when I hit the shot was that I should have passed it. So thankfully it landed up in the back of the net. The second half was very frustrating, I thought another chance would fall my way but it didn't quite happen.

"It is hard to look at us as a team at the moment because we are still gelling. We are still only three weeks into our season and that was our first competitive game. So there is still plenty of work to do on building up understandings as a team.”

Aberdeen will be a good team again this season. The problem McInnes has and has had for the past few years is that he’s had little time to get everyone up to speed.

Gary Mackay-Steven’s move from Celtic was put through 24 hours before the winger made his Aberdeen debut. Greg Tansey also started, while Nicky Maynard and reg Stewart came off the bench.

Work still had to be done regarding brining in a centre-half, while a doubt remains over the Shaun Maloney deal.

“For Gary to have only signed on the Wednesday and to come into the team was a great effort from him,” said Christie who will be looking to push on this season.

He has not played that much but he still gave a great account of himself. Greg Tansey did as well. Greg Stewart when he come on, he is just a different type of player when he picks the ball up in certain areas.

“He is a player already I can tell that I am going to love playing with. He is always looking forward and he is always positive when he has the ball at his feet."

Where Aberdeen to get through they would face either the Cypriots Appolon Limassol or Zaria Balti of Moldova.

Let's just say they can beat Siroki, and it's not an impossibility, making the actual play-offs would be a challenge. This is where Scottish football is.