PAUL McGinn is the perfect man to make light of the chaos surrounding Partick Thistle’s logistically-challenged visit to take on Hearts at a re-shaped Tynecastle today. While this week’s construction delays and failed safety certificates are something new, the 27-year-old full back was a Queen’s Park player one Tuesday night in March 2010 when the weather closed in on the Spiders’ team bus as it made its way back from Elgin and down the A9, leaving him and his team-mates stuck there overnight. Inconvenience or not, it was actually rather convenient for the young McGinn: it even caused this student to miss an economics exam the following morning and allowed him an extra week to study.
“The one I can remember was with Queens Park years ago,” said McGinn. “We went up to Elgin and played but on the way down we got trapped on the road overnight and couldn’t move. You couldn’t get a sleep and it was freezing as well because they had to turn the engine off at a certain point. So it was a weird night.
“We must have been between the snow gates - they closed it and we were in between,” he added. “But to be fair we were lucky, because with Queens Park while you don’t get wages, at least you travel with Parks of Hamilton. So it was a bit better than it could have been. It could have been a mini bus.
“Because we were on the bus overnight, I also missed an exam which was brilliant. I went in to see the lecturer and showed him the paper, look ‘stuck on the road all night’. He had to believe me. it gave me another week’s study. I got to re-sit it on my own a week later.”
Thistle have been as keen as Hearts this week for the match to be played – fearing a November with just one fixture, and the doomsday scenario of being asked to play up to nine during the month of December. “I am crabbit enough in December, my missus will tell you with all of them socialising and me not able to do anything,” said McGinn.
The 27-year-old loves the atmosphere at Tynecastle, and can always be guaranteed an extra shout or two because of his surname and association with his brother John, of Hibs. “I sort of love Tynecastle,” he said. “You talk to all the players and they love it. The fans are right on top of you so the new stand should add to that. You want to be involved in the opening. If you are getting a bit of criticism then you are in the game. If you are 3-0 down they don’t bother their backsides. I get stuff about John quite often. They say ‘Aye, you are no as good as your brother’ and I say back, ‘Which one?’”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here