STEVEN MacLEAN insists that progressing to the group stage of the Europa League would have to be marked down as a greater achievement for St Johnstone than ending their 130-year wait for major silverware.
MacLean scored the goal that completed the Perth side's historic 2-0 victory in the Scottish Cup final over Dundee United at Celtic Park in May of last year, but he believes he would scale even greater heights should he help his side through the four rounds of qualifying matches facing them in UEFA competition this season.
St Johnstone begin their campaign against Alashkert of Armenia on Thursday afternoon in temperatures anticipated to reach 40 degrees Celsius.
Their 3000-mile trek to Yerevan took over six hours on Tuesday and their manager, Tommy Wright, has found it difficult to compile a detailed dossier on the opposition as a result of them signing no less than seven players from their league rivals Mika over the summer.
This is a testing opener and MacLean knows it is only going to get harder from now on with Serbian side Red Star Belgrade or Kairat Almaty of Kazakhstan waiting in the next round.
"The group stages are four rounds away," warned MacLean. "We've got eight games to play before we can even think about that, but, if we can make it that far, it would be better than winning the Scottish Cup, if I'm being honest.
"It would be a bigger achievement.
Alashkert qualified for Europe after finishing fourth in their domestic league, scoring just 32 goals from 28 games whilst conceding 35 at the other end. Detailed research has been difficult, but MacLean suspects there could be similarities between the sides when the action gets underway.
"They are probably quite like ourselves in the respect they don't score many, but don't concede many either," he said. "They are like a lot of foreign teams in that they like to play out from the back, play it slow before speeding things up with a few quick passes as they try to open you up."
Chris Millar and Graham Cummins have not made the trip due to injury, but central defender Steven Anderson has reported himself fit to play.
Alan Mannus insists spirits are high ahead of the club's fourth consecutive European campaign and insists the after-effects of a long trip for their opening competitive fixture of the season have not blunted the players' desire to succeed.
"It was quite a long journey," said Mannus. "We did about three hours then stopped for a while in north Italy to refuel and then did another three or four hours.
"All the players were in good spirits and looking forward to getting on the flight and playing the game, though.
"Preparations going into the game have been good as everyone is fit and ready to go. Obviously, we weren't off for very long with the end of the season only being a few weeks ago, but all the lads knew they'd be coming back into it after a short space of time, so everyone kept themselves in good shape."
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