ST JOHNSTONE took a circuitous route to reach a depressingly familiar end last night.
A Europa League tie which was sitting beautifully for them after a first-leg win in Belarus gradually dissolved in their hands. FC Minsk levelled the tie on the night, then won it on penalties, taking the place in today's play-off round draw which had looked certain to belong to the Perth side.
Brutally, St Johnstone missed chances all night and then three of their penalties. Minsk scored their first three, while Dave Mackay's was saved and then Paddy Cregg missed. Then there was the drama of Rory Fallon and Gwion Edwards scoring in between two Alan Mannus saves. If Steven MacLean had scored, it would have gone to 3-3 and sudden death, but no. His effort was saved too and St Johnstone were out.
Felled, too, was their great home record. It had been November since any team came to Perth and won and it felt like a cheap concession of the record when it fell to this deeply modest team from Belarus. Minsk are in the bottom half of their domestic league after 19 games, and no wonder. Their limitations were constantly displayed. They made rudimentary errors, gave possession away and - with one lethal exception - were neither convincing nor purposeful when they counter-attacked.
Scottish fans are so conditioned to calamities when they see their teams in European football that the stands dared not presume safe passage to the next round for St Johnstone. They could not help tentatively projecting to the next round as they watched what little their team was up against, but then the opening goal arrived to confirm that their anxiety had been justified all along. St Johnstone had never lost in 42 years of occasional European ties, even when Hamburg, Monaco and Rosenborg came to town. Sadly that record ended, too.
They had turned McDiarmid Park into a fortress, albeit one unlike any other. Most fortresses are designed to keep people out; the problem at McDiarmid is usually how to get them in. This was their third home game of the season and attendances have been by turns hugely encouraging and desperately dispiriting. A buoyant 7850 filled the place against Rosenborg and even more, 8594, occupied the stands for this one. But in the game inbetween, barely 3000 home supporters turned up when Hearts visited on Sunday afternoon (the visiting fans outnumbered them). The conundrum for the club is how to narrow the huge gulf between one-off, casual supporters who will turn up for occasions like this and those prepared to attend run-of-the-mill league games. For the moment, at least, there was the stirring sight of fans pouring into the ground long before kick-off.
St Johnstone have a neat, balanced team. In five games this season, Milos Rnic's goal in the 75th minute was only the second they had conceded. Not only did they look better than Minsk for the majority of the night, they worked harder than them, too. Of the game's eight bookings, Frazer Wright and Cregg were the only ones for St Johhnstone players, while Siarhei Sasnouski was shown a red while celebrating the penalty shoot-out win, yet Minsk lacked aggression. They were there for the taking.
St Johnstone are energetic and eager up front, but were desperately undone by the poor quality of their finishing. It was horribly wasteful. At first only a combination of desperate last-ditch tackles and shots off target prevented them building on their first-leg lead but soon the crowd groaned as they fluffed one opening after another. Stevie May, MacLean or Hasselbaink had nothing to show for all their graft. The latter was first in and was tackled as he prepared to pull the trigger. David Wotherspoon crossed for May, who could not quite connect. Hasselbaink slipped another deft ball to May but it was a fraction behind him and he could only dig a low shot at the goalkeeper's legs. That was one fine chance and soon there was another: May's cutback was met by a Hasselbaink volley, zipped across goal and narrowly outside the post.
And so it ground on. St Johnstone lacked invention and their shots and free-kicks were repetitive and poor. Eventually Minsk, as if surprised to be in contention, began to assemble some bright counter-attacks for the first time in the game and the tie took a twist. Andrei Razin fizzed a shot over the bar to spread jitters, and then the inevitable goal arrived. Rnic met a cross with a low drive which crept inside Mannus's left-hand post.
Another away goal would have floored St Johnstone and it remained a possibility right until the death. Mackay worked the goalkeeper with a free-kick in stoppage time. Vladzimir Bushman, Minsk's colossal goalkeeper, had swallowed up ball after ball all night. Extra-time was fraught. Substitute Fallon claimed that he was fouled in the box and a moment later MacLean squandered yet another chance.
Clearly St Johnstone's groundstaff had not bargained on extra-time. The sprinklers, clearly on a timer, activated at 10pm and began gushing water across the pitch. They were quickly switched off, but nothing could be done about the dampener which came a few minutes later.
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