Chris Millar insists St Johnstone must respect Rosenborg but not fear them.
The Perth men completed their preparations for this week’s trip to Norway with a 1-0 win over Morton in a testimonial for Millar’s former Cappielow team-mate Peter Weatherson.
Looking ahead to the Europa League tie, Millar said: “The experience of last year (when St Johnstone lost to Eskisehirspor) is something we can draw on.
“I felt when we went over to Turkey we gave them too much respect I don’t think we need to go over there and sit in.
“Hopefully we’ll learn from that and give a good account of ourselves. It is a winnable tie.
“If you go in with the attitude that we’re just here to turn up then you’re beat already.
“We believe that we can go through. Maybe one more game would have been ideal. There was a wee bit of rustiness today at times but I thought we played some really good stuff as well.
“Hopefully over the next couple of days we get that right in training and it all clicks because it’s a tough tie. We’ve got to go over there and show them respect but no fear.”
But before their trip to Norway St Johnstone had business to take care of in Greenock and they started strongly.
Nigel Hasselbaink shot over the bar on two minutes before Steven MacLean hit the post from a narrow angle.
The home side then began to make an impression with trialist Dougie Imrie’s cross just failing to pick out Weatherson’s head on 16 minutes.
Joe McKee then picked out Fouad Bachirou on the edge of the box but he hit his shot over the bar.
On 32 minutes Hasselbaink cut in from the left before curling a shot at goal but Nicolas Caraux held it.
The away side had an excellent chance just before half-time as David Wotherspoon crossed to MacLean who was free inside the box but headed well wide.
The first chance of the second half came after Kabba-Modou Cham played through Archie Campbell who only had Mannus to beat but the goalkeeper saved well.
On 74 minutes Dave MacKay gave Saints the win with a 20-yard free-kick over the wall and into the top corner.
Millar said: “I thought it was a good game today. Morton gave us a good test.
“It was a fitting occasion for big Spoonsy just a shame he never scored. He had one chance and maybe four or five years ago he would have stuck that away but I think Father Time’s catching up with him!”
Saints manager Tommy Wright is relishing the challenge and added: “It’s a big tie and we’ll be under no pressure. Rosenborg have a good pedigree in Europe but if we do ourselves justice we can get something from the game.
“I’ve watched them twice and I’ve been able to get DVDs so we’ve got a very good idea of how they’re going to play. I’ve got an idea of what team I want to play if everybody is fit.
“We’ll look at training and see but I’ve had a team in my head for about a week so I’m pretty sure I’ll be going with that.”
Morton manager Allan Moore said: “We passed the ball really well. We’re lacking a cutting edge up front but that’s usually the last thing to come.
“Against a team the calibre of St Johnstone who have a big game on Thursday I think we performed well.
“We’ve got the nucleus of a good team here. If we keep playing football this way we’ll open teams up.”