St Johnstone boss Tommy Wright believes the club cannot afford to bask in their success over Rosenborg with a trip to Belarus already looming large on the horizon.
Just hours after sending the Norwegian league leaders out of the Europa League, the Perth club’s players were back at training at Stirling University, plotting the downfall of a FC Minsk team they know very little about.
Minsk booked their spot in the third qualifying round with a 2-0 win over Maltese side Valletta on Thursday and Saints club officials are scrambling around to sort out the necessary visas and paperwork for the squad before they fly out to Grodno on Wednesday.
Wright, whose Saints side are at home to Morecambe in a pre-season friendly, admits the turnaround time following the Rosenborg game is far from ideal, but he is keen to do as much homework as possible on Thursday’s opponents.
“We’ve asked Valletta for information, I don’t think we’ll get anything out of Belarus but there is some footage on the internet,” he said.
“We’ve obviously got the game against Morecambe but we’ll try and get as much information as we can with the time we’ve got.
“Visas and stuff mean we just physically can’t get them watched, although that’s the same for them about us, unless they were at the game on Thursday night.
“Not that we weren’t confident about going through, but they probably would have been a bit more confident about going through so they maybe did get a look at us.”
Saints have boosted their squad by re-signing midfielder Murray Davidson on an initial one-year deal, and Wright revealed the move had been completed prior to their memorable win on Thursday night.
The Perth boss admits he was surprised no English side had snapped up the Scotland international, but feels their loss is Saints’ gain.
He said: “Murray knows what I think of him and what the club think of him. We’ve been in discussions, I’ve been in constant contact with him since I got the job, and the chairman has been in contact with his advisers.
“We were well aware that he wanted to go down to England and there were a few possibilities there for him.
“I can understand why he would want to he would see that as maybe a step up in his career but fortunately for us nothing happened down in England and he had given me his word that if he was to stay in Scotland he would come back and talk to us.
“So I’m pleased that the chairman was able to get the deal done and I’m delighted to get him back. He gets goals from midfield and he’s been an important player for the club over the last few seasons.”
Davidson will get some game time against Morecambe today, but Steven Anderson has been ruled out of Thursday’s first leg in Minsk after falling awkwardly on his knee against Rosenborg and Dave Mackay will step into centre-half.
The groin strain which kept Chris Millar out of Thursday’s tie could also see him miss the Minsk clash, although Wright isn’t counting the midfielder out yet suggesting he could be back within a “week to 10 days”.
And with the stakes so high for Saints in Europe, fans should expect to see a mainly youthful team at McDiarmid Park.
“Against Morecambe we’ll go with a pretty young team but the players who played against Rosenborg physically wouldn’t have recovered at this stage of the season,” added Wright.
“We’ll have a strong enough team but the important thing is the Minsk game and the league season.”