St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright could not hide his disappointment after the Perth club’s Europa League campaign came to a crashing halt in front of their own fans.
Saints had high hopes of making it into the play-off round draw as they took a one goal lead over FC Minsk into the return leg at McDiarmid Park.
But a sucker punch from Milos Rnic in 75 minutes wiped that advantage out and took the game into extra-time with the scoreline at 1-1 on aggregate, before penalty kicks were then required as neither side could grab a winner. Misses from Dave Mackay, Paddy Cregg and Steven MacLean ultimately proved costly as Minsk ran out 3-2 winners in the shootout, and Saints were left to rue what might have been.
It had looked as if keeper Alan Mannus had single-handedly brought Saints back from the dead during the spot kicks following Mackay and Cregg’s early misses, but MacLean’s final miss meant it was the outfit from Belarus going home happy at the hosts’ expense.
MacLean was understandably gutted to see his team go out after such a good performance in Grodno a week ago.
“It should never have gone to penalties but fair play to them,” he said.
“They got their goal and they were a stuffy team to play against. They scored with their only shot on target but that’s football it bites you in the backside sometimes.
“The crowd were different class tonight but it was just one of those nights. I just went for power with my penalty in that corner but the keeper guessed rightly.
“What can you say? We’ve gone out and we’re probably a bit unfortunate to be honest.
“But when things go wrong, you see the players who will come out fighting and that’s what will happen here.” A crowd of 8,594 watched last night’s heartbreaking exit in Perth, even more than the turnout against Rosenborg two weeks ago. The defeat also ended St Johnstone’s unbeaten home record in European competition, which stood at seven games and stretched back 42 years before last night’s loss.