St Johnstone Trakai

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St Johnstone face an uphill struggle to avoid instant Europa League elimination after going down to a 2-1 home defeat by 10-man Lithuanian side FK Trakai in Perth last night.

The visitors scored early through Maksim Maksimov and quickly restored their lead after former Don Joe Shaughnessy headed home in the 32nd minute.

A magnificent 25-yard strike from Vaidotas Silenas, who was later sent off, earned them victory against a Saints side which lacked creativity before the second-half introduction of debutant Stefan Scougall and Graham Cummins missed a great chance to level.

Tommy Wright's side began the first qualifyinground tie with attacking intent but it quickly fizzled out and the visitors created the first chance when Aleksandr Bychanok headed wide.

Trakai, whose only European win came against Faroese side HB Torshavn, are second in the Lithuanian league after 16 games and they looked sharp and confident on the ball.

They were getting men forward including both full backs and their 14thminute opener came from an overlapping run by Valdemar Borovskij. He slid the ball in from wide and it was not cut out by the home defence, featuring 22-year-old debutant Ally Gilchrist in for injured captain Steven Anderson, allowing Russian forward Maksimov to score from 12 yards.