It is a home record that even the household names of European football would be envious of.
Seven times in St Johnstone’s history have continental clubs visited Perth in search of a victory and each time they have been denied, and the Saints players will be determined to stretch that run to eight when FC Minsk make the trip to McDiarmid Park.
None perhaps more so than defender Frazer Wright, who is keen to avoid being part of the backline to blame for Saints’ unbeaten Euro home record finally being broken.
SV Hamburg, Vasas Budapest, Zeljeznicar Sarajevo, VPS Vaasa, AS Monaco, Eskisehirspor and latterly Rosenborg have all failed in their attempts to win in Perth since the 1970s, and Saints are looking to add tonight’s visitors from Belarus to that list.
“You hear the fans talking about our unbeaten home record in Europe and we don’t want to be the ones who lose it,” Wright told Courier Sport.
“So hopefully we’ll keep it going against FC Minsk and if we do then we’re through. I think it helps that no European team have beaten us in Perth and I’m sure visiting teams will look at the record.
“It also helps the boys that we’ve got a record to protect and gives us a bit of confidence at home. The crowd was a big factor in the Rosenborg game and hopefully we can get the same numbers or even more.”
“When Rosenborg scored the fans still backed us and helped us get back into the game,” said Frazer Wright.
“I just hope we can start better and not lose an early goal, because we want to keep a clean
sheet.
“It was such a big scalp to beat Rosenborg and hard work helped us achieve that so we don’t want to undo all that hard work by not seeing this tie through.”
Making it through to the Europa League play-off round would be a major achievement for Saints and could potentially pave the way for a glamour tie against one of Europe’s big names.
For his part though, Wright is refusing to even think about Friday’s draw until his team are safely through.
He continued: “It’s hard to stop yourself looking forward at potentially bigger games but you need to try because that’s when you’ll start making mistakes and tripping yourself up so it’s important we concentrate on FC Minsk.
“I haven’t looked at the clubs who enter the next round. I will treat myself on Thursday night if we get through. From a personal point of view if we did get through then I’d like to get a big city team maybe London or somewhere in Spain but we’ll wait and see.”
Saints take the same lead as they had over Rosenborg into tonight’s game with FC Minsk, and Wright admits the higher level of expectation on the Perth side may make this evening’s fixture more difficult.
“On the evidence of the first leg I think FC Minsk are a good counter attacking team,” he said.
“The boy up front the No 10 Raman Vasiliuk had a bit of pace to get in behind and was trying to get on the ball and run things.
“I felt we coped fine apart from getting caught out a couple of times on the counter attack but by the second half we were used to it.
“I think the expectation levels have risen because of the result from the Rosenborg game but I just hope we can see it through. We’ve done well defensively and big Alan Mannus has produced a few good saves at vital times.
“We’ve got a lot of experience in the back four and hopefully we can build on that. We’re also 10 months unbeaten at home domestically, which is a great record.
“It seems to go in phases because when I first joined St Johnstone we were good away and not so good at home and the second season it was the opposite.
“I just hope we can combine the two this season and we’ll do well.”
The 33-year-old feels that his Europa League experience is contributing massively to his development and reckons his decision to swap Kilmarnock for Perth in 2011 has been more than vindicated.
“It’s certainly a long way from my Stranraer days to be sitting talking about Europe,” he joked.
“But I’ve been delighted with the way things have gone since I moved to St Johnstone.
“I feel I’ve been progressing from the moment I moved to McDiarmid Park, we’ve qualified for Europe two years in a row, so it’s been a good decision and I feel it justified my decision to move here from Kilmarnock.
“We’ve been in the top six and made Europe and the club has done really well. ”