Phil McGuire Post Aberdeen

"There are a lot of walking wounded in the dressing room but we battled through it. The character and the determination was there."

Phil McGuire carried a groin injury into the game and following the warm up at Pittodrie it was decided to give him a pain killing injection to enable him to take part. Unfortunately the player got no relief whatsoever from the medication and had eventually to be substituted but not before he made a notable contribution to the game. He commented:-

"When we have a starting eleven back on the treatment table I thought I had to do something to get through the game. We soldiered on and we came to frustrate Aberdeen and I think we did that. The game more or less cancelled itself out in the middle of the park and although Aberdeen had the pressure chances were few and far between really. One mistake cost us the game. Sevy has done well to put it in; he went in where it hurts and got the 1-0 victory.

"There are a lot of walking wounded in the dressing room but we battled through it. The character and the determination was there." That determination boiled over though just four minutes into the second half but Phil passed it off "it's just football really, I just tried to separate it to stop players getting sent off. It was the highlight of the game" he joked.

The severity of the groin injury will be assessed in the next 48 hours:-

"I will see in the next few days how it is and have a scan to determine if there is any long term damage. Hopefully I will be OK." Phil was sure he didn't want to be sidelined, "We had three more injuries after the Ayr game but other teams will pick up injuries as the season progresses. There is a long way to go; that is just five league games and we are still in the Cup."

The same of course cannot be said for Aberdeen playing their first game since their shock exit from the CIS Insurance Cup:-

"When you have had a major setback like that the next game you are going to come out and perform, or you are going to go in your shell. To be fair to Aberdeen I thought they came out and battled as much as us but they got the break. They can take that victory into the next game while we can take the positives from the game - how we battled away with a depleted squad. The international break is welcome and hopefully we can get some players back."

This was Phil's first return to his former employers since leaving in July 2005 and of course the old place had some memories for him:-

"I spent the majority of my life here so it is a special place for me. I enjoyed my first game against them and I look forward to more coming along. It is a great club, a massive club and one I am proud to have been associated with it."