JOHN McGINN was sick as a parrot after St Mirren came up just short against Celtic.

But the Buddies midfielder confessed it wasn't half as bad as he felt during the week after being struck down by a virus.

The Paisley club had to do without the tenacious young talent in Tuesday's League Cup extra-time defeat at Partick Thistle, with defender Jason Naismith also suffering from the same bug.

The pair were reintroduced into Tommy Craig's squad on Saturday for the visit of the SPFL Premiership champions and more than held their own for most of the game after battling back from a goal down to to level on 49 minutes via Kenny McLean.

However, McGinn told afterwards how he and his exhausted team-mates began to flag as the match went on as a result of illness and their midweek exercions in Maryhill.

He said: "The boys are gutted. Maybe towards the end we all started to tire. We've had a tough week.

"The lads played 120 minutes on Tuesday and it started to show. Myself and Jason have been floored with illness and were just recovering.

"The last half an hour I was like the tin man. I hardly trained all week and it started to show.Hopefully I'm better for Tuesday against Aberdeen."

St Mirren were more than a match for Celtic in a performance that was night and day from the display against the Jags midweek. Buddies boss Craig had described that showing as flat, but nothing could have been further from the truth on Saturday with the endeavour of his team forcing Celtic to work hard for their second win in as many games.

Youngster Thomas Reilly rattled Craig Gordon's bar from 30 yards early on, while Callum Ball should have done better than to fire straight at the Hoops keeper from point-blank range in the second half.

However, it was the industry from McGinn, especially before the break, that lit up St Mirren.

He was a constant pest for Celtic captain Scott Brown as he hustled and harried, forcing the Scotland international to make the odd mistake in the process.

It was this attitude which didn't allow the Glasgow club to settle for the opening spell, and it's something the Saints central midfielder will hope to do again at Pittodrie tomorrow.

He said: "I've played against Scott eight or nine times now.

"He's one I learn something from every time I play against him.

"Following Celtic as a youngster, he was one of the players I always looked up to.

If I can get to half the level or even near the level of Scott Brown I'll be doing well.

"No-one was expecting us to take anything from this.

"Now it's Aberdeen away and we believe if we play to that level we'll get something up there."