THERE will be one fewer job for John McGinn to take care of this weekend. One of the Hibernian midfielder’s first moves of a Saturday evening is to find out how former club St Mirren fared that day but, with the teams in direct opposition at Easter Road, there will be no need for McGinn to race home to his new flat in Edinburgh to stick on Ceefax.

He admits it will be a strange experience. McGinn is not yet 21 but spent two-thirds of his young life as a St Mirren player having joined their youth set-up as a seven year-old. A talented, tenacious midfielder, McGinn soon became an integral part of Danny Lennon’s plans and, aged just 18, was in the team that won the League Cup. It seemed as if only good times would lie ahead for him. McGinn, though, soon discovered otherwise. “It was all going so well for me in the early years. And then there comes a time when you have to suffer the other side of football.”

That other side was not pleasant at all. What turned out to be his final season at St Mirren could scarcely have gone worse. Under Tommy Craig’s stewardship, the team soon found itself thrashing helplessly around the foot of the Premiership table like a fish trying to escape from a rowing boat. Standards dropped, including McGinn’s, as they desperately tried to save their top-tier status. To make matters worse, the player’s contract was coming to an end, with little sign of an acceptable extension being placed in front of him. McGinn won’t talk figures but is quick to rebuff the idea that he had ideas above his station, wanting only a salary the equivalent of his peers. Instead, it soon became apparent there would be no improved offer. Reluctantly, he accepted his lengthy association with St Mirren was drifting to a conclusion.

“At the time I would have said it wasn’t affecting me because as a footballer you’re meant to put these things to the back of your mind,” he told Herald Sport. “But the longer the contract discussions went on, the more I couldn’t help thinking about it.

“There comes a time when you’ve been at a club for so long you feel like part of the furniture and sometimes you get treated that way as well. I just wanted to be appreciated the same as the other guys. I felt that what was on the table didn’t anywhere near justify my role in the team compared to what I knew others were on. It’s not about money for me but similarly you don’t want to have the mickey taken out of you. You don’t want it to be case of, “he’s been here for 13 years so we’ll just give him this”. That’s what it felt like a bit. In the final year I was definitely undervalued and it started to affect me. I wasn’t putting in the performances I knew I was capable of. It became a lose-lose situation so I realised it would probably be best for both parties if I moved on. Everything just turned a bit sour.”

Then came the incident that would become known as Speargate. Even now it seems bizarre to recount just how Steven Thompson was able to impale a training ground pole into McGin’s thigh in a daft prank that went horribly wrong but the ramifications were wide-reaching. McGinn never played for St Mirren again. Like any accident in the workplace, the player chose to make a claim via the club’s insurance for loss of earnings and damages – it was not a case of him “suing” St Mirren – and with the case ongoing he cannot speak about the details. But it irks him that he is still painted in some quarters as the bad guy rather than the victim of the piece.

“That was the toughest time of my whole St Mirren career by far,” he adds. “It was a complete accident but just summed up the season for me. I was determined to leave the club on a high but that robbed me of the chance to do that. I was devastated that I couldn’t be involved to try to help the club avoid relegation. It just confirmed that was a total car crash of a season.”

He bears no ill-will, however, towards Thompson, someone he still views as a friend and a guiding influence in the early days of his career.

“It got portrayed that we were big enemies now but nothing could be further from the truth,” he added. “I turned my phone on after my first goal for Hibs and he had texted me congratulations. If I had a problem with him I wouldn’t be speaking to him.”

McGinn’s decision not to talk publically about either his contract situation or his injury saw him come in for what he feels was unwarranted abuse.

“I was disappointed that, when stories are portrayed in a certain light, an image of a player comes out that isn’t really accurate. I just needed to keep my dignity and pride intact so I kept my mouth shut. People could form whatever opinions they wanted but they weren’t always hearing the full story. I took a lot of abuse at the end of last season and I was really disappointed by that.

“A lot of things that were said weren’t true but sometimes you just have to take the moral high ground and just ignore it. But a lot of the supporters who know me on a personal level know I’m not that kind of guy. That’s not how I go about my business.

“I had a really good relationship with the St Mirren fans for a long time. They really supported me even when I had a small blip now and again. They stood by me because they knew the next week I would come out and perform again. I hope that’s what they remember most of all.”