When it comes to sibling rivalry, Stephen McGinn admits he’s not got a leg to stand on.
There aren’t many families that boast two Championship winners medals in the clan collection, as the Falkirk skipper has. The trouble is that when those honours are held up to what his little brothers have been up to, it doesn’t really measure up.
Big bro Stephen freely confesses there’s simply no competing with McGinn junior especially. Premier League star John, after all, has already booked his place in the Scotland Hall of Fame after passing the 50-cap mark and also has those two cup triumphs with St Mirren and Hibs. Middle-child Paul – now with Motherwell following stints with St Mirren, Dundee and the Hibees – may not have walked up the steps of Hampden but he too boasts something Stephen doesn’t with his cherished appearance for the national team.
So it’s no surprise the family elder didn’t want to tempt fate as ahead of Saturday's Scottish Cup semi-final with Inverness by counting on a cup final date on June 3 before he’s got it in the bag. “If I compare myself to John I’ll be in trouble,” grinned the Bairns captain. “He has his moments and Paul and I fight it out!
“He’s disappointed he can’t come on Saturday because he’s got Manchester United to prepare for. Paul and his wee boy will come, so I’m looking forward to having their support.
“(Reaching the final) is not really something I want to think about or talk about, because if I don’t get it then it’s another thing I don’t have – on top of the Scotland caps! That sibling rivalry is pretty strong. But we’re really supportive of each other.
"The first thing I do when get in is check their results, and I’m desperate for those two or three times a season when we all win on the same day. But, with the banter, it’s pretty competitive.”
The bickering may look brutal on the surface but it hides a deep bond between the Clydebank-born siblings. With former Parkhead chairman Jack McGinn for a grandfather, all three were raised supporting Celtic.
But rather than heroes in Hoops, John drew most of his inspiration from Stephen while working his way through the Saints youth system. The oldest brother had long since moved from Paisley to Watford by the time John followed him into the Buddies first team but by then, a knee ligament injury had curbed what appeared to be a promising career for the former Scotland Under-21 ace.Stephen may not have hit the heights he’d have hoped for but he’s proud to see both his kin mixing it with the best north and south of the border.
He said: “I love watching both of them do well. Paul went to Celtic Park last weekend and did well with Motherwell becoming the first team to take points from Celtic there. Everything they do, I don’t think you appreciate in the moment.
“Stuff like John playing in the Spain game with Scotland, beating them and playing at such a level and being such an important player for your country. In 10, 15 years I’ll probably look back and think, ‘I didn’t take that in enough’.”
Stephen admits he did a bit too much of that on his only previous Hampden run-out, a 2009 Scottish Cup semi-final against Rangers. “I’ll learn from the last time,” he laughed. “The last time I went out and thought, ‘I want to soak up the warm-up, the atmosphere, walking out the tunnel’. Then two minutes in Andrius Velicka had scored for Rangers!”
After returning to St Mirren in 2016, McGinn led the club back to the Premiership but was released just as Covid was biting.McGinn admitted: “Genuinely, there were two occasions (I nearly quit). One when I got the phone call from St Mirren (telling me I’d been released).
“We’d just a baby. I didn’t know if football was going to resume again, I had no idea what we were doing. Then when Gus MacPherson made the call to go to Morton, my genuine first thoughts were if I go there and don’t enjoy it then that will be me.
“Since then I’ve obviously won the league with Kilmarnock and have now got Saturday to look forward to. I’m really thankful I stuck at it. I was disappointed (at being released by St Mirren) in that and I had just become a father. Hannah was three or four months old.
“You’re trying to think sensibly: ‘Look, I’ve lived my dream, I’m happy with my career and what I’ve done’. But I needed to provide for my family. Thankfully it never proved as bad as feared and we got football going again.
“Does it make me determined to savour these moments? Well I’ve never been a nervous type. Last year, the morning of the Kilmarnock-Arbroath title decider I went on a walk for about 90 minutes and it was things like that I thought about, all the nerves, blowing it and losing this game tonight.
“All I had to do is go win a game for Kilmarnock in front of a full house at Rugby Park. So, it’s moments like that when you think, ‘I’ve just got to go for it’.
“Nights like that can be the best of your life, so I’m really looking forward to trying to do it again.”
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