Saints suffer narrow first-leg loss

Tommy Wright's team have travelled safely to Rosenborg, Minsk, Lucerne and Spartak Trnava over the past two seasons.

But they were undone at the Vazgen Sargsyan Republican Stadium in Yerevan as Mihran Manasyan's second-half winner gave the Armenians a narrow lead ahead of next Thursday's Perth return leg.

Saints substitute Chris Kane did have a chance to level at the death but fired straight at home keeper Gevorg Kasparov to leave the Scots frustrated.

St Johnstone took around 50 members of the Fair City faithful on their 3,000-mile jaunt to the crossroad between Europe and Asia.

But excitement ahead of the match was muted by news that club employee Billy Graham and his wife Lisa were among the victims of last week's Tunisian beach massacre, with Wright and his players all sporting black armbands in tribute to the McDiarmid turnstile operator.

Wright had admitted before the game that his side were stepping into the unknown after reporting difficulties tracking down recent footage of their opponents.

But experience on the continent was not an issue for the Northern Irishman's team as they kicked off their fourth successive Europa League campaign in sweltering 40 degree heat.

And Saints were made to sweat despite facing a fairly ordinary Alashkert side.

With new signings Joe Shaughnessy, Brad McKay and John Sutton in their line-up, they played into the hands of their hosts with a string of sloppy passes.

Midfielder Murray Davidson was forced off for treatment to a head knock inside the opening 90 seconds after colliding with keeper Alan Mannus.

And with the Scots a man light, Alashkert fashioned their first chance when Aram Bareghamyan picked out Gevorg Poghosyan at the back post - but his toothless volley was pushed away by Mannus.

Davidson returned after six minutes on the sidelines but St Johnstone were happy to see Alashkert do little with the time and space they were being given.

Their next scare was self-inflicted, though, as Tam Scobbie left Mannus wrong-footed as he ducked in front of the keeper just as a high ball dropped into the box. Their blushes were spared, though, as the ball landed on the roof of the net after a wild bounce.

Saints, content sitting in as they looked to maintain a clean sheet, finally put Kasparov to the test half an hour in but the Alashkert keeper was down well to tip David Wotherspoon's strike away for a corner.

The Armenians were hardly free-flowing but Norayr Gyozalyan did force Mannus into another save when he took aim 20 yards out.

The hosts made their first change 13 minutes into the second half as Mihran Manasyan replaced Siarhei Usenia. And it proved to be a decisive switch as just two minutes later he found the net when he slammed Karen Muradyan's cut-back over Mannus' shoulder.

Saints were relieved that Mannus was not troubled further as Alashkert fired in a series of long-range pot-shots.

But Kane wasted his chance to send the Scots home with a precious away goal when he failed to beat Kasparov with a scrambled effort from an 89th-minute corner.