BLAME US, NOT THE REFS
No excuses, says McGinn
St Mirren skipper Stephen McGinn insists Saints can’t keep blaming referees for their defeats.
The Buddies were again on the end of a poor decision on Saturday following Andrew Dallas’ failure to award them a penalty for Jason Kerr’s trip on Danny Mullen.
The striker appeared to have been bundled over inside the box only for the whistler to point the other way and hand Mullen a booking for diving.
The call follows the giving of Aaron Tshibola’s goal for Kilmarnock the previous weekend, as well as the failure to spot a clear foul in the buildup to Hibs’ winner in Paisley earlier this month.
But McGinn concedes that St Mirren have been doing themselves no favours either as he called on the team to stand up and be counted.
McGinn said: “Everyone knows we should have had a penalty, St Johnstone players were even saying it was as clear cut a penalty as you’ll ever see.
“That’s the way it is going for us at the minute.
“We had a really frustrating game last week against Kilmarnock.
“The referee held his hands up and said if he got it wrong, then he got it wrong.
“But it’s not an excuse, and we don’t want to use it as one, St Johnstone were far better than us in the second half.
“We have been in the game and on the front foot for the last two Saturdays. But when we have gone behind, the game has totally slipped away from us and we need to be a lot more streetwise than that.
“We have not shown enough when we have gone behind in games.
“We need to learn from it and learn from it fast.”
St Mirren return to action on Wednesday evening in a crunch fixture against fellow strugglers, Motherwell, following a run now of eight games without a victory.
Having captained the side to the Championship last season, McGinn insists that the team is equipped to handle the pressure of battling it out at the other end of the table.
But he admits they have to learn quickly.
He added: “We had it the other way around last season, when we were winning every week and it probably felt harder to get beaten than it was to win.
“We are on the other side now and it’s tough. Saturday nights aren’t nice.
“All we can do is go back in on Monday to prepare for a huge game on Wednesday.
“We like playing at home, especially night games, so it is one that we look forward to.
“But we need to get a lot tougher than we are at the moment.
“It is still so early in the season. What you don’t want to do it leave yourself detached.
“Saturday was a good chance to bring St Johnstone back in the mix.
“You would be totally lying if didn’t look at tables and other results.”