It’s not been the best couple of years for Paul McGinn. Relegated with Chesterfield in 2017, relegated with Partick Thistle in 2018? The 28-year-old is so used to the sinking feeling he’s just about an expert in maritime salvage operations.

His younger brother John may be heading for the promotion play-offs with Aston Villa, but Paul would be quite happy if his sibling is the only member of the McGinn family involved in the end-of-season shoot-outs.

Saturday’s last-gasp share of the spoils at Motherwell kept St Mirren’s hopes of overhauling Hamilton alive and with Dundee’s relegation confirmed it’s now a straight fight to see who will finish 11th. St Mirren square up to Hamilton next week in an encounter that will be so tense, one of the officials should be Hitchcock.

“The goal could be massive for us,” said McGinn of Kyle Magennis’ injury-time equaliser at Fir Park which left St Mirren four points adrift of Hamilton with just two games to play. “We have a freedom now that Dundee are down and the pressure is all on Hamilton as it is theirs to lose really. They are in a great position but hopefully we can add to their pressure by beating them next week and then you never know what might happen.

“I have suffered relegation with Chesterfield and a relegation through the play-offs with Partick Thistle last season when we lost to Livingston. I think having that pain can help me prepare for it again if we end up in it, but we hope we don’t end up there. With Thistle we didn’t really have any momentum and we weren’t getting results, whereas this year with St Mirren we are picking up points. Hopefully lady luck shines on me this time.

“Livingston were on a roll this time last year and they were the team you didn’t want. They were a really physical side who were hard to play against. For some reason we ended up toothless at the end of last season and Thistle have struggled again this season. That just shows how crucial momentum can be in football and not getting sucked into it. This year in the Championship no one is firing on all cylinders like Livi were. I would hope we don’t have to worry about the play-offs by getting ourselves out of them, but if we don’t I hope our momentum can carry us through and keep us up.”

Hamilton’s win at Dundee condemned the Taysiders to the Championship while inching the Accies to safety ahead of next week’s proverbial six-pointer

“The Hamilton game is up there with the most important games in my career,” admitted McGinn. “Every game at this stage of the season is vital but it this is huge. It would have been better if Hamilton had dropped points at Dundee but we will go into it confident.”

David Turnbull’s neatly finished half-volley looked to have grabbed all three points for Motherwell and the hosts should have finished things off – or at least ran down the clock – when Elliott Frear broke through in a four-on-two situation but got it all hopelessly wrong with his decision-making. Seconds later, St Mirren were level with just about the last kick of the game. “A few months ago we might have lost the game and we might not have got the luck of the ball dropping to Kyle’s feet either,” added McGinn. “Football is strange at times.”

And as for that family affair regarding play-offs on both sides of the border? “As a family we are hoping John is the only one in play-offs at the end of the season,” said McGinn. “The (English) Championship final is the Monday after ours so we are hoping we can make a weekend of it instead of going down on the Monday if they (Aston Villa) are in the final. Aston Villa are on a great run right now and nobody will want to play them.”