Morecambe's team bus may have suffered a blowout on the road to Perth, but it didn't stop them bringing St Johnstone back down to earth with a bump.
While around 8000 St Johnstone fans crammed into McDiarmid Park on Thursday night to witness their team bring Rosenborg to their knees in a Europa League qualifier, only 871 were kept waiting 15 minutes to watch an unrecognisable team make hard work of their League 2 opposition.
In fact, none of the team selected to start midweek by Tommy Wright repeated the feat against Morecambe, with the St Johnstone manager keeping his gaze firmly focused on their trip to face Belarusian outfit FC Minsk this week.
Those who enjoyed a well-earned break yesterday saw little to unnerve them ahead of their next jaunt abroad.
Coming off the back of defeats to Motherwell and Wigan Athletic, Jim Bentley's men were rarely troubled by St Johnstone's second string, with former Rangers player Barry Nicholson a trialist in midfield. Murray Davidson took up a familiar position alongside him after signing a new one-year deal on Thursday, but even he failed to stir much excitement among the modest crowd watching on.
Indeed, the hosts' only real first half chance came in the first half when Rory Fallon dithered when through on goal on 11 minutes, only for goalkeeper Barry Roche to dive at the ex-Aberdeen man's feet. Their efforts were even less noteable in the second period, a thrashed shot by the pacy Gwion Edwards their best attempt.
At the back, Wright's defence didn't have too much to contend with after the only goal of the game, Marcus Marshall latching on to a lofted through ball from Andrew Fleming before guiding his shot home off the post on 33 minutes. A few pot shots from range was the best they could muster before Alex Kenyon fluffed an open goal in the last minute. Of course, the St Johnstone manager will be losing little sleep over the performance of his team here. With the exception perhaps of Davidson or Gary Miller, his starting XI from Thursday is unlikely to change greatly ahead of their next test on the continent and he admits that watching Belarusian eyes will have learned little from yesterday's contest.
"There was no way we could have risked anybody, there's just no time to recover," admitted Wright.
"With all due respect, I don't believe Minsk will have the quality of Rosenborg. But we know shocks can happen. It's quite easy to remind the players that nobody expected us to beat Rosenborg so we've got to approach it in a really professional manner."
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