McGinn found it "surreal" and "brilliant" to be playing together in the Euro 2020 qualifying win four years after the pair both left St Mirren.

"I think any young player playing at St Mirren just now, it just shows the sky's the limit," the 24-year-old said.

"It is a great place to learn your football."

Aston Villa's McGinn and Norwich City's McLean helped their current clubs win promotion to the Premier League this season after their debut seasons in English football.

McLean, three years older, left the Buddies for Aberdeen before joining the Canaries, while McGinn's next stop after Paisley was Hibernian.

"Four years ago I was nearly at Houston Dynamo," McGinn revealed to BBC Scotland after earning his 14th cap in Saturday's 2-1 victory. "You just never know how football changes.

"I am loving life in Birmingham and now I'm a Premier League player and I'm delighted to get another start for Scotland and hopefully I can carry that on and be a mainstay in both the Scotland and Aston Villa team."

McGinn has had a busy few weeks, coming through the play-offs to win promotion with Villa, attending his brother's stag do and then helping Steve Clarke to get off to a winning start as Scotland head coach and keep their qualifying hopes alive after Oliver Burke's late winner.

"It's been crazy and that definitely topped off a great couple of months for me," he said. "Everyone in the country knew how important this match was and to get the three points was all that mattered.

"Everyone in the stadium knew we were minutes away from the campaign ending really, so we've kept ourselves in the mix and given ourselves a chance of getting some big results and keeping us in there."

McGinn admits the Scots "made it hard for ourselves" by conceding an equaliser with three minutes remaining at Hampden and points out that they will have to play better on Tuesday away to Belgium.

"We are under no illusions about how difficult it is going to be - they are the top team in the world at the minute," he added. "They have unbelievable players, but we'll go there and give it everything we've got and hopefully bring a result back to Scotland.

"The manager's made it clear this week how he wants us to play. I think we implemented it in a way against Cyprus, but the manager will be looking for improvements and we will as a squad as well."