Humiliation of Euro exit adds insult to injury for O’Halloran
Midfielder insists absent key players no excuse for dismal St Johnstone display
MICHAEL O’HALLORAN admits St Johnstone have let the country down after their humiliating elimination from the Europa League at McDiarmid Park on Thursday night to Armenian minnows Alashkert.
The attacking midfielder is exempt from culpability for the away-goals defeat as he was the one bright spark on a dreadful night in Perth as Tommy Wright’s side failed to take care of a team ranked 446th in the club game by UEFA.
There is merit in Wright’s argument that Scotland’s European representatives need more help from the SPFL in terms of preparation, but there can be no excuses for being knocked out by a team competing in European football for the first time.
Much of the damage was done in the first leg when St Johnstone played poorly and failed to score an away goal, losing 1-0 to a side who were playing in the second tier of Armenian football three years ago.
O’Halloran levelled the tie with a close-range shot but the Perth side lost a shocking goal in 73 minutes which effectively put them out. Ararat Arakelyan played what seemed a simple ball over the top but St Johnstone did not deal with it and Norayr Gyozalyn ran through to lob the ball over the on-rushing Alan Mannus. Brad McKay’s effort four minutes from time made it a 2-1 win on the night but St Johnstone were eliminated on away goals. Ironically, the win adds half a point to this season’s coefficient but that is a paltry reward for a quite shocking exit.
“A lot of people expected us to go through so we feel we’ve let ourselves, St Johnstone and Scottish football in general down,” O’Halloran admitted.
“The lads are devastated about what happened and the way it happened. We were pushing for another goal and they caught us on the break.
“We have paid the price for trying to get another goal and it was a poor one to lose. The gaffer couldn’t fault our effort but the goal we lost was criminal, you can’t afford to do that at European level no matter who it is you’re playing.
“It cost us the tie and we’re out – we’re gutted. When we went in front I felt we were playing well and we were confident of winning the tie.
“But when we lost the goal it was always going to be difficult to score three and go through.
“When we didn’t score over there it was always a risk that they’d get a goal here and put us under pressure.”
In mitigation, St Johnstone did have injury problems to contend with and these will prove problematic in the weeks and months ahead. They lost four key midfielders before the second leg and their regular centre-back pairing did not finish the game.
Steven Anderson was taken to hospital after being elbowed in the face while Frazer Wright looked to be suffering from a groin injury. However, O’Halloran knows these are not the reasons they are out: they simply did not perform over the two legs.
“We’re not making excuses but the injuries were a major thing,” O’Halloran said. “We were already without Murray Davidson, Chris Millar and Simon Lappin – then David Wotherspoon got injured on Wednesday. That’s our first-choice midfield. So the gaffer had to change things about, but that’s not an excuse because we were not good enough over the two legs. We didn’t deserve to go through.”
All of the hard work done in the latter part of last season to secure a Europa League slot, and the early return to pre-season, has been for nothing and now Saints have three weeks to wait before the Ladbrokes Premiership season starts.
Tommy Wright is now thinking about resting his players once more to clear their heads and then almost beginning a pre-season campaign again as their first match against Hearts is not until Sunday, August 2.
O’Halloran admitted: “We worked so hard to get into Europe again and were delighted to come back early for it. We were great towards the end of last season and deserved it when it came around for us. But we haven’t made the most of it – going out this early is a kick in the teeth.
“It’s three weeks now until the start of the season and we’ll have to dust ourselves down.
“It will be back to pre-season for us now, we have some games coming up and the gaffer will want to look at a few things I’d imagine. We might get a little bit of rest, but to be honest we just want the season to come around now.
“We’ll have to lift ourselves but we have enough experience in the dressing-room to make sure we’re ready for the start of the season.”