STEPHEN McGINN has slammed claims he dived to win St Mirren's penalty against St Johnstone at the weekend.

The midfielder has been caught up in Scottish football's latest diving controversy, which left Perth defender Dave Mackay incensed at the decision and accusing McGinn of conning ref Steve Nicholls.

The row comes hard on the heels of Arsenal star Eduardo's dive against Celtic - he has now been cleared by Uefa - and Aiden McGeady's recent red card for simulation in Celtic's clash against Hibs last month.

But McGinn has hit back and insisted he did not dupe the official and only went down because he had been fouled.

McGinn said: "I didn't dive, it was a penalty. There was contact in the box so that's a penalty.

"It's not in my game to con the referee, I felt he fouled me. There has been a debate over diving, but this wasn't on the same scale as those ones because I didn't dive for the penalty.

"I felt it was a penalty. I haven't read what Dave said, so I can't comment about that, but it doesn't matter to me as I just get on with my football."

St Mirren manager Gus MacPherson was extremely disappointed by Mackay's comments and believes the St Johnstone player could have landed himself in trouble with the SFA.

MacPherson said: "I am sure the SFA will be looking at Dave's comments very closely.

"You can't have a player saying that. You might be frustrated at the penalty and Dave's an experienced player but you just can't say that.

"There is contact, I felt that at the time it was a penalty and Derek McInnes came out and said he can understand why the penalty was given because there was contact in the box.

"It doesn't matter whether people perceive it as soft. There is contact in the box and it was a penalty."