STEPHEN McGinn today revealed St. Mirren’s mauling by Aberdeen in the William Hill Scottish Cup has simply made them even hungrier to play in the top flight.

The Ladbrokes Championship leaders were fancied by many to give their Premiership opponents a serious scare at Pittodrie on Saturday and possibly even knock them out of the competition.

But the Paisley club got off to a disastrous start when Stelios Demetrious gifted the home team a penalty which Adam Rooney converted.

And a first-half Ryan Christie double and a stunning Gary Mackay-Steven strike early in the second killed off their hopes of causing an upset.

But Buddies midfielder McGinn insisted that playing against Derek McInnes’s charges in the televised match in front of a 9,858-strong crowd has just given Jack Ross’s men a taste of the big time.

“We want to be coming back to places like this next season,” he said.

“No disrespect to Dumbarton, where we were last week, it’s the top level and arenas like Pittodrie you want to be playing at.

“We wanted to go to Pittodrie and create a good impression, showing everyone why we are top of the Championship.

“We knew we would have to carry a bit of luck, defend properly and not lose goals at bad times - but we did a couple of those things.

“Aberdeen are a team who can punish you in that way if you make mistakes.

“We knew the danger of making mistakes and Aberdeen showed why they have been the second best team in the country.

“This is the second-toughest draw that could have come out of the hat because of what they have done over the last few years.

“They are a good side, they take the game away from you before you even realise it.

“During the week we talked about it, about how we can’t make individual errors, and that’s what we did.

“So for as good as we looked going forward at times I think defensively we have to be better when we’re playing better sides.”

McGinn is confident the St. Mirren’s players’ confidence won’t be affected by the heavy defeat when they return to league action with a difficult away game against third-placed Dunfermline at East End Park on Friday night.

“We won’t just write this off,” he said. “We have professional pride and don’t want to lose 4-1 to anyone.

“It’s not nice, but what we have done this season is bounce back from defeats with wins, I think we have done that after every game we’ve lost this season.

“You have to try to deal with setbacks in a positive way so that’s what we’ll try to do.

“The manager is good when we lose, he keeps things positive and we will be ready to go again on Monday.”

Ross was pleased with how St. Mirren responded to falling two goals behind in the first half and pulled a goal back through striker Gavin Reilly.

He also predicted that his players, especially the youngsters in his side, would benefit from their run-out against the team which has finished runners-up in the Premiership three seasons running.

“It was a good learning experience for us, individually and as a team,” he said. “The players will be better for it.

“There's a number of young players in that group, the message to them is hopefully they will get to come back here as a group or individually without us and when they do, hopefully they will be better equipped for that challenge.”

Ross is also confident that St. Mirren, who are eight points clear of Dundee United in the Championship, can bounce straight back from the defeat with an away win in Fife on Friday night.

"I have absolute faith and trust in this group,” he said. “Every time we have had a setback in the league this season, which they hasn't been many of, we've always responded with win.

“So I have no doubt they will do that. I am certainly not downbeat and that's the message for the players as well. We have a good game to recover in against Dunfermline on Friday night.”