Wright upbeat going into tie

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Saints go into the McDiarmid Park encounter trailing 1-0 from last Thursday’s match in Armenian capital Yerevan.

Wright believes home advantage will help his players after they struggled in the first-leg, which was played in temperatures around 40ºC and then had to contend with an injury to midfielder Murray Davidson.

And with an extra week of preparation, Wright expects his players to up the tempo and put the visitors under some pressure in Perth.

Wright said: “We’re looking forward to it, and I think the important thing is that it is only one-nil and we’re still very much in the game.

“We’re at home and the emphasis will be on us to be more on the front foot than what we were in the first-leg.

“And I think conditions did play a big part in that, we weren’t able to play with our normal intensity in terms of pressing.

“So to be only one-nil down isn’t ideal, but I think we’re very much still in the game.”

Saints face a trip to Kazakhstan if they progress after Kairat Almaty beat Red Star Belgrade 2-1 in their second leg for a 4-1 aggregate success.