McGinn: Cup defeat is what we deserved

Paul McGinn insists St Mirren must lick their wounds and learn quickly following their cup exit at the hands of Aberdeen.

The defender admits that the Saints got what they deserved from the League Cup clash as they were simply blown away by the Dons at Pittodrie.

Three first-half strikes killed any hopes of progression inside the opening 45 minutes.

But McGinn, a summer signing from Partick Thistle, reckons it is better that the result came at this stage of the season – and not in the league.

He said: “It is a harsh reminder of the quality at this level.

“Aberdeen have shown with that performance why they have been second for three years.

“The idea is to not let guys like that start well but we didn’t do it.

“It is a low dressing room because it is a sore one to take this early on in the season.

“But we are glad it is early on and not crucial to our league campaign.

“In any sort of dressing room when you get beat like that it isn’t a nice place to be.”

The likes of Gary Mackay-Steven, Scott Wright and Lewis Ferguson controlled proceedings for the hosts but McGinn believes that Saints allowed them too much time on the ball.

Instead, he claimed that the Buddies should have imposed themselves more on the game and not have been afraid to put the boot in.

He added: “We might have shown them too much respect. I just felt we were a yard off it all over the pitch to be honest.

“Respect doesn’t really matter at that point. They start to get the confidence and popping the ball about the park.

“Maybe we should have just been a bit more cynical and brought them down in the middle of the park but we let them walk through us at times.

“It could be the kick up the backside that we need. If things aren’t going for us then we need to be a bit cleverer.”

But McGinn offered words of wisdom for fellow full- back Hayden Coulson, who had a tough afternoon on the left hand side as Mackay-Steven opened up his bag of tricks.

He said: “At 2-0 early on you are already thinking about damage limitation. It is natural for young players at that point to worry about what is going to happen next.

“It is probably the worst thing you can do but it is human nature. “You have got to learn from it. “Hayden Coulson will probably never have had a tougher game but he has to learn from it.

“Niall McGinn has given me the runaround like that and it has always made me a better player so I hope it is the same for him.”