McGinn focusses on Pars after cup misery

Saints skipper Stephen McGinn admitted he was hurting in the aftermath of his side being dumped out the Scottish Cup by the Dons.

St Mirren struggled to match their top-flight opponents over the course of the 90 minutes as they eventually succumbed to a 4-1 defeat in the North East.

And McGinn conceded that the side shot themselves in the foot at times, allowing “ruthless” Aberdeen to capitalise on the Saints’ mistakes.

McGinn said: “We won’t get over it straight away. My professional pride is hurt as you don’t want to lose 4-1 to anyone.

“We knew we had to carry luck and defend properly and not lose goals at bad times.

“But we did a couple of those things against a team that are so good they will punish you if you make mistakes.

“Aberdeen have been the second best team in the country for a good few years. They are especially good at home so we knew the size of the task we faced coming here.

“As good as we were going forward, defensively as a team we need be better if we are to come up against Premiership teams.

“We are, however, better than the scoreline suggests.

“At half- time we came in and talked about staying in the game and then right away they scored a top-drawer goal out of nothing, so I think you have got to respect just how good they are.”

But McGinn is adamant that his side can’t mope around with the league fixtures coming around thick and fast, and Saints back in action against Dunfermline on Friday.

However, the midfielder reckons that Saints can seek solace in the fact that they have continuously battled back from each setback that they have faced over the course of the season.

McGinn added: “It is not nice but what we have done this season is bounce back every time we have suffered defeat. We have dealt with setbacks in a positive way all year and the manager has been central to that.

“The manager is really good at keeping everything positive and getting us going again on a Monday.”