Talking point

Saints’ first round exit from Europe leaves them with just one more game scheduled before the Premiership season kicks-off at Kilmarnock on August 5.

That comes next Saturday against Sunderland at McDiarmid Park but manager Tommy Wright will no doubt be working on options to get his squad ready for another push for a top six place and a possible return to European action. season we would definitely beat them.

“But that’s not the way our season works. They were sharper than us for half-an-hour in the first half of the first tie and they’ve put us out.

“I thought they had a few decent players. Their striker was clinical and we were not – that was the difference over the two legs.

“When you’re in your season and people have been playing together, you’ve gelled better.

“But we can’t use that as an excuse because over the two games we should have been good enough to get through.

“I can’t see us going to summer football in Scotland, even though it would help teams like us when we’re in Europe. The season has always been the way it is just now and I don’t think they will change it.”

Shaughnessy was Saints’ only goalscorer across the 180 minutes of football and, as well as finding the net with a header at McDiarmid Park, there were another three opportunities for him in the air in Vilnius.

Those chances apart, though, creativity in the opposition box definitely proved to be an issue for the Perth men.

“It wasn’t really our night on Thursday,” he said. “Nothing went right for us and it’s frustrating.

“We controlled the game and were all over them, but without creating any real glaring chances.

“They didn’t trouble us at all until the goal, which came from us chasing the game at the end, but our final ball let us down.

“We wanted to score because we felt if we did we would go on to beat them, but we just couldn’t do it.

“We had enough possession and got into the final third plenty, but we just lacked that killer ball to open them up properly.

“It’s disappointing and frustrating because we put a lot into it over the two legs and had some really good chances in the game at Perth. “But things just didn’t go for us. “I felt that for three-quarters of the tie we were better than them but the first 20 minutes of the first leg has killed us.

“We left ourselves a huge hill to climb to get back into it but it just wasn’t to be.

“The damage was done in the first leg but even after that, with the amount of possession we had and the good positions we were in, we should have got the job done over there.

“It’s just so disappointing to be out in the first round.”