Stephen Robinson reveals what St Mirren lack to be a European club after Conference League washout in Bergen

St Mirren were washed away in Europe's rainiest city after suffering late heartache in Bergen.

Stephen Robinson's side had it all to do in Norway after they were outplayed and outclassed in the first leg last week in the third qualifying round of the Europa Conference League but somehow salvaged a late draw. But they hugely improved on their home display away from home though as they matched Brann blow for blow despite getting off to a horror start when they lost a goal in the opening five minutes.

It looked like sub Alex Iacovitti had rescued a draw for the Scots with a second half header which would have taken the tie into extra time. But Saints couldn't hang on and suffered a late collapse with Brann scoring two goals inside three minutes - the first from the outstanding Felix Myhre - with five minutes left to seal the tie and their reward will be a trip to Kazakhstan to face FC Astana.

Saints deserved a drawand were desperately disappointed their first European campaign for 37 years ended. Robinson said: "I'm very proud of the players. Even when we went 1-0 down we believed and we had chances as well.

"Our defending was poor for the goals, we have to be honest with that. They punished us, but we have to defend better whatever level we're playing at. We've had a taste of that now and we want more of it. We've enjoyed it, we've enjoyed the experience.

"I believe the football club as a whole will be better for it. The playing side of course, the management side, the coaching side, the administration side. We're trying to be a European club but we haven't got the infrastructure in place to be a European club.

"We will improve, we will get better and we want to make this more often than once every 40 years."

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