Saints let the country down says O’halloran
MICHAEL O’HALLORAN accepts that St Johnstone have let the country down after Thursday’s shocking Euro exit at the hands of Alashkert.
Despite winning the second leg 2-1, Saints crashed out to the Armenians – ranked 446h by Uefa – on away goals and O’halloran admits they have no excuses.
The attacking midfielder said: “A lot of people expected us to go through so we feel we’ve let ourselves, St Johnstone and Scottish football in general down.
“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 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. 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 groin injury.
However, these are not the reasons they are out. They simply did not perform. O’halloran said: “We’re not making excuses but injuries were a major thing. 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.
“We worked so hard to get into Europe again and were delighted to come back early for it
“But we haven’t made the most of it. Going out this early is a kick in the teeth.”
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