ST JOHNSTONE became the second Scottish team to suffer European humiliation in a couple of days as they followed Rangers by flopping to a dismal defeat against Europa League minnows FK Trakai in Lithuania.
And manager Tommy Wright insisted he desperately needs more quality after home and away defeats to a side they dominated last night, but lacked the attacking quality and guile to make the breakthrough.
Not only could they not grab the two goals required in Vilnius, they couldn't even manage one and that was against a team who had to play with ten men for 33 minutes after Arunas Klimavicius was sent off for two bookings, St Johnstone even lost it at the death from a breakaway goal from Maksim Maksimov - who also netted last week.
And while it wasn't quite Luxembourg proportions on the shock scale, it was a desperately poor defeat against a side with zero European pedigree. Wright admitted he desperately needs new blood.
He said: "It was a game we shouldn't have lost - it was a game we should have won. All night we got into good positions, our approach play was good, but our final cross let us down.
"Overall I can't fault the efforts of the players, just that final ball. The number of opportunities we have had to get a ball in and then we fell short. We lacked that quality and ruthlessness to capitalise on the amount of opportunity we had in good positions.
"They weren't better than us. They can enjoy their night and they deserved it because they made fewer mistakes than us and that's cost us dearly. The damage was done last week.
"It's always a frustrating time for managers when they lack players. I know what I need to add to the squad. I know we need more quality. I've been here four years and I have worked extremely hard to make sure this club performs at the highest level and get the best out of what we have. I believe the squad is crying out for a little bit of help and hopefully we can get that because it is frustrating for me as a manager."
The Perth men took control early on and twice came close to making the breakthrough within the space of a minute through the aerial prowess of Joe Shaughnessy.
A Liam Craig free kick was met at the back post by the big Irishman and his header was tipped over by keeper Ignas Plukas.
And from the resulting corner from Blair Alston, Shaughnessy saw another header blocked on the line by defender Valdemar Borovskij.
It was a completely different game from last week. Saints allowed Trakai no time on the ball and they were dominant and defender Arunas Klimavicius was lucky to be only one of five first half bookings for a cynical trip on Murray Davidson, who was bursting through on goal. But that red card for him was only delayed until the 57th minute when he was shown a second yellow card for catching Chris Kane late.
Wright wasted little time in sending out an SOS to veteran striker Steven MacLean, artificial pitch or no artificial pitch. But the truth was that St Johnstone had long since ran out of ideas and had punched themselves out.
And the Lithuanians rubbed salt in the Scots' wounds with the winner with two minutes left with Saints pushed up the park.
Mykhaylo Shyshka spotted a glaring hole in the middle of the Saints defence and threaded in Maksimov who easily tucked the ball past Zander Clark to seal a horrific week for Scottish football.
FK Traki (4-3-3): Plukas; Borovskij (Cyzas 81), Janusevskis, Klimavicius, Wakili; Bychenok, Shyshka, Vorobjovas; Cesnauskis (Kruk 60), Maksimov, Dorley. Subs: Sheremeta, Traore, Masenzovas, Marazas, Mamaev Booked: Janusevskis, Bychenok, Klimavicius, Dorly. Red card: Klimavicius.
St Johnstone (4-4-1-1): Clark; Foster, Shaughnessy, Gilchrist, Tanser; Alston (Cummins 76), Millar (MacLean 63), Davidson, Craig; Scougall (Wotherspoon 74); Kane. Subs: Mannus, Kerr, Paton, Thomson.
Booked: Davidson, Tanser, Alston
Referee: S Todorov (Bul)
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