ST MIRREN captain Stephen McGinn admitted he was hurting following the 4-1 derby defeat to Morton on Saturday but argued the scoreline wasn’t a fair reflection of the game. It was the second heavy loss of the new season suffered by Jack Ross’ side who also went down 5-0 to Partick Thistle in the Betfred Cup last month.

McGinn, though, felt the derby defeat to Cappielow was even more painful to endure, especially as 10-man Saints, who had Jack Baird sent off early in the second half, only had themselves to blame for their downfall.

The midfielder said: “I hate losing games and I feel the brunt of it as captain and as someone who came through the youth ranks here. It hurts more at St Mirren than any of my previous clubs. We brought such a fantastic support down to Morton as well. But hopefully those who were there will have seen that there wasn’t much in the game

“We were on the wrong end of a heavy defeat to Partick a few weeks ago and that really felt like a heavy defeat. This one, though, was really strange as for large spells we were the team looking to make the play and create chances. But to defend that poorly let us down. We gave them goals, especially conceding two penalties. We shot ourselves in the foot.

“It doesn’t feel like a day where we were really under-par and they were the better team. It felt more like a typical derby, blood and thunder, not much in it and looking for a bit of quality to win the game. But we gave them goals and that’s so disappointing. To go from last weekend beating Falkirk to defend as poorly as this is a real blow. But I definitely don’t think we were as bad as we were at Thistle and we will be looking to put it right next week.”