Stephen McGinn has targeted home improvement for St Mirren after their six-game winning run crashed and burned at the weekend.

The Paisley team went into match against Dunfermline riding high at the top of the Ladbrokes Championship.

But they were dismantled 3-0 by a Pars side that leapfrogged them at the summit.

The defeat left Buddies skipper McGinn disconsolate. But after the players held a post-mortem, he is convinced they can bounce back in style at this Saturday at the Paisley 2021 Stadium.

And he’s told them they owe the travelling support big time for letting them down at East End Park last Saturday.

He said: “I apologise to the fans who came in great numbers and ask for them to turn out again. We’ll repay them for that over the long run.

“It’s so early on, but in any game to get beat the way we did is sore and we have to take our medicine.

“They are a good side and it’s a tough place to come. We can’t defend as poorly as we did. If we keep defending the way we are we are going to have afternoons like Morton and here and it’s not acceptable moving forward.

“There’s a long way to go and we still play each team at least three times. On paper it is still a reasonable start with winnable fixtures to complete the first round of fixtures.

“We take our medicine, we’ll work on the negatives and we have to improve defensively. We need to be better and far more resilient.”

The Buddies have won their last six home matches in a row and are back to playing hosts this weekend as Queen of the South come to Paisley.

McGinn says the team will be aiming to keep up the good home form on Sunday in a bid to look to get back to winning ways.

“Our home form is really good and it was a different game going to Dunfermline.

“We like playing at home and fancy our chances of beating most teams there.

“The last run of home games was very profitable for us and we have to look to do the same again.”

That view was shared by Buddies boss Jack Ross who admitted he had spent a few painful days sifting through the wreckage of Saturday’s defeat.

He said: We committed too many individual and defensive errors so we didn’t have any right to take anything from the game.

“And we have to do better given the ambitions we have set for ourselves this season.”

Ross will be without Adam Eckersley and Gregor Buchanan who were both red-carded against Dunfermline.

He added: “I’ve reminded the players about their discipline and their responsibilities. It means we are without two important players for a game against a team that will be in the promotion mix this season.”