St Johnstone skipper Dave Mackay has revealed how determined he is to avoid a Minsk mark II.
Defeat to the Belarussians at McDiarmid Park last August 8 was the darkest day in an otherwise sunny season for Saints.
As will be the case when Swiss side FC Luzern visit for their Europa League second qualifying round second leg tie, the Perth men were in the box seat last time around thanks to an away goal scored by Steven Maclean.
However, the evening that followed was a frustrating one to say the least, with spoiling tactics from the visitors adding to the misery of missed chance after missed chance for the hosts.
After Milos Rnic grabbed an equaliser for Minsk with quarter-of-an-hour to go, Mackay himself had an opportunity to get the club through but his last-gasp free-kick was saved.
With extra-time failing to give up a goal, it was on to the penalty shoot-out. The visitors scored the first kick and the spotlight fell on Mackay, who missed.
Minsk then went two up before Paddy Cregg missed again for St Johnstone. It was soon 3-0 but Rory Fallon kept the home team in it by coverting his spot-kick.
There appeared to be hope for Saints when keeper Alan Mannus saved the next one and Gwion Edwards made it 3-2.
Mannus saved once again but Maclean couldn’t take his chance to level at 3-3 and the Belarussians went through to the next stage.
There were ugly scenes afterwards and Minsk player Sergey Sosnovski was even shown a red card.
Mackay says lessons have been learned and the Perth men will be on the ball when they try to get over the line against Luzern, with the tie poised at 1-1 after the first match in the Swissporarena.
Mackay said: “The Minsk game was a bad one because we shouldn’t have been beaten by them. Their behaviour was bad enough but what really got to us was going out to such an inferior team.
“Looking back, we should have absolutely hammered them on the night and been through to the next round. We were in an unbelievable position after winning the away game 1-0 and we didn’t see it through.
“We had loads of chances, their keeper pulled off some great saves and with the referee being the way he was nothing went our way really. So being annoyed at the end was a culmination of all that it was one of those things.
“But you have to learn from these things and we know we are nowhere near going through to the next round at the moment. There’s loads of hard work to be done. Drawing away from home is good but this is going to be a tricky game.
“And the lesson we have to take from Minsk last season is that at this level you have to take your chances.
“If you can score early on then it settles you down and you are in a strong position to see it out. Against Minsk, if we had scored early I have no doubt we would have scored a few.
“We didn’t and they did, with what was their only shot on goal a strike from distance. So we’re a year on now, we’ve got more experience of playing in Europe and I hope we will use it.”
Mackay highlighted two aces the Scots hold. The first is that Maclean’s away strike means they don’t have to chase the game, while the other is their star striker is coming back.
“The onus is on Luzern to come out at us because they have to score,” added Mackay.
“They will have to open up at some point and that will suit us. Having Stevie May back is great for us as well because he will add another dimension and will test their back four.”