The St Johnstone fans who made the 6,000-mile round trip to back their team in Armenia were let down by the players, Steven MacLean has admitted.
However, there is a determination to make amends in the return leg against Alashkert next Thursday night.
MacLean, who wasn’t able to have his usual influence on the game in the frustrating 1-0 defeat in Yerevan, threw his sweat-drenched shirt into the crowd at full-time to thank the band of 100 supporters who had gone to considerable expense to cross the Continent for the Europa League qualifier.
He is bitterly disappointed that it wasn’t in celebration of an away win.
“We were poor, it wasn’t good enough, and there’s no getting away from that,” MacLean said.
“I don’t know what it was, whether we let the heat bother us.
“I can’t put my finger on it but all I can say is that we know we’ve let the fans down and we’ll be trying to put it right next week.
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“I threw my shirt to them at the end because I felt sorry for them.
“People spent good money travelling to Armenia and they didn’t get a performance from us to cheer,” he added.
“We were getting a bit of stick at the end so the shirt is maybe burned by now!
“It was a long trip for them and although the beer was cheap, the plane tickets were not.
“The good thing is that it’s still half-time and only 1-0.
“I saw enough to tell me that if we perform to what we’re capable of at home then we can get a result.
“We’re still bang in the tie so everyone believes we can still win and go through to the next round.”
MacLean was at a loss to explain the carelessness that was the hallmark of much of their play particularly in the first hour.
He said: “It was hot the hottest I’ve ever played in.
“But that isn’t an excuse because we should have done better,” MacLean added.
“Maybe there was an element of people pulling out of things because we knew that it was going to be a long 90 minutes.
“It shouldn’t be like that but sometimes these things happen.
“The one encouraging thing I thought was that we finished the game a lot stronger than them.
“I think getting them back to McDiarmid Park, our fitness can help.
“I don’t think we underestimated them because we knew going to Armenia that they would be comfortable on the ball.
“They played a system that suited them and obviously coped with the conditions better.
“Fair play to them, they deserved to beat us, but now we’ve got to make our home advantage count when they come to Perth.”
There have been some special McDiarmid European nights in the last few seasons, and MacLean believes Thursday could be another.
He said: “Hopefully we’ll get a big crowd next week because our fans can be excellent when they turn out in their numbers.
“They definitely make a difference, and the atmosphere for the European games in the past has been incredible.
“Alashkert are not used to playing in front of crowds, so hopefully we can get seven or eight thousand there backing us.
“We will need to improve, show a better work ethic and do better when we’re on the ball.
“We didn’t pass it as well as we can. We’re usually good when we’re in possession, but nothing was sticking for us.
“We didn’t take care of the ball at all. Too often we gave it back to them and put ourselves under pressure.”