AS everybody knows, experience is crucial when it comes to European football. Murray Davidson is joking that it required all of his to secure VIP treatment and some extra leg room on the seven-hour flight back from Alashkert in Armenia on the Perth side’s last venture into continental football when it was feared, thankfully wrongly as it turned out, that he had sustained a cruciate knee ligament injury.

All joking aside, that Europa League venture in the summer of 2015 was a painful one for everyone associated the club, not least for the midfielder who had convinced himself that his season was in tatters. “I remember saying to the doctor ’just to be honest with me’,” said Davidson. “And he said, ‘being honest, we think you’ve done your cruciate’. When I did it on the pitch, I had played on for 10 or 15 minutes so I had it in my head that it wasn’t. But because I had been told by a couple of medical people, you have to listen to them. So they got me three seats and I was just sort of lying along the seats with my leg up, icing it. It was a long flight but I got a scan the very next day and it was good news. I only missed maybe a month. It was a huge relief but I’m looking for better memories this year.”

St Johnstone face similarly unheralded, under-appreciated opponents this time around in the form of FK Trakai, on current form the second best side in Lithuania. Judging by the club’s European co-efficient, it is a winnable tie, with the Perth Saints also ranked as favourites to beat either of their prospective second round opponents Norrkoping of Sweden or Kosovan new boys Prishtina.

But even then the odds remain stacked against them making it all the way to the game-changing group stages, with only one side out of 102 first round entrants last year, Maccabi Tel Aviv, still standing when it got to that stage last year. Recent history tells you these early round matches are fraught with difficulty for Scottish sides, where teams are still building up their fitness from pre-season and one wrong turn can see you subjected to fairly major media criticism.

Davidson, this time coming off tidy-up surgery on his ankle which he underwent as soon as the club’s top six status was secure, knows the pitfalls only too well. “It’s part and parcel of it - for any Scottish team,” said the midfielder. “It seems like you’re set up for it. If you go out, a lot of negative things get said about you.

“So we have to make sure that we put in a good performance and progress. And then, if we do get knocked out by a bigger club, the press won’t slaughter us then. You are under pressure and there is pressure no matter who you play. If you play a big team, you have pressure to perform and put on a good performance. If you play a lower team, you are expected to progress. But it’s a pressure we are delighted to have.

“The Rosenborg one will be talked about for years,” he added. “It was such a big game, such a big victory. At the same time, we don’t want to just play against a Rosenborg and then go out.

While an untimely defensive injury pile-up could see one of the club’s group of young central defenders - Ally Gilchrist, Liam Gordon or Cammy Kerr - make their European debut on Thursday night, they will be surrounded by experience. “Looking back to our first year against the Turkish team [Eskisehirspor], it is all about learning – travelling, training. It will be new to a few of the boys but a large part of the squad have been here three or four times now. In my opinion, that can only be a positive thing. Being in Europe is a great thing, for the players, for the fans, and for Perth. It will be difficult but there is no point going in it just to be knocked out.”