Saints’ success has highlighted Gers’ failings

St Johnstone deserve huge credit after another terrific European result.

To follow up their away win against Rosenborg with victory in Minsk was a tremendous achievement.

I can’t help but feel, however, that Saints’ successes have highlighted the shortcomings of Rangers in their last continental campaign.

Two years ago Ally McCoist’s men were out of Europe before the end of August.

They were knocked out of the Champions League by Malmo then embarrassed in the Europa League qualifier by little-known Slovenians Maribor.

The results were a huge blow to a support which had been looking forward to a run in the Europa League at worst, and very costly to the club in terms of missed revenue.

Then, Ally largely received the benefit of the doubt because he was a new manager.

But the same is true of Tommy Wright, who has stepped up following the departure of Steve Lomas to Millwall in the summer.

He is operating off a far smaller budget than the 2011 Rangers.

And, most importantly of all, his team have recorded wins against stronger opposition!

Of course, we can’t take their progress to the next round for granted.

A 1-0 away win in the first leg is a great result, but it does not guarantee progress into the qualifying round. Even in this early stage of the season, though, we can be reasonably optimistic Saints will finish the job at McDiarmid Park.

It might surprise a few people, but I fully expect Celtic to not simply get past Elfsborg but to actually win Wednesday’s away leg in Sweden.

The way the tie is set up, the hosts will have to come out and have a go at the Hoops which should really suit Neil Lennon’s side.

With players such as James Forrest, Georgios Samaras, Kris Commons and lightning-fast new signing Derk Boerrigter in their ranks, they can pick off the Swedes on the counter-attack.

Unfortunatelty, I have to say it is too late for Motherwell, who lost their home game against Kuban Krasnodar 2-0 on Thursday night.

I thought when the draw was made that Stuart McCall and his players had been particularly unfortunate in being paired with the Russians and events have proved me right.

That is what happens in Europe. Sometimes you just come up against a team that are too good.

Krasnodar have spent a lot of money in recruiting high -quality players in key positions throughout the squad and the benefit of that investment was there for all to see.

I think we have to say the same applies to Malmo in their tie with Swansea City.

Beating Hibs 9-0 on aggregate was as good a result for the Swedes as it was a bad one for the Edinburgh club.

But they found tackling one of England’s top flight to be an entirely different proposition.

Television viewers watched Malmo beaten 4-0. It could easily have been quite a few more.