Ian Maxwell is determined to ensure there is no repeat of the pain he endured the last time St Mirren reached the Scottish Cup quarter-finals.Saints lost 1-0 to Gretna in 2006 before watching the then Second Division side go all the way to the final.

Maxwell came off the Raydale Park pitch with his head and his heart wounded and is eager to make sure there is no repeat in their cup clash at St Johnstone on Saturday.

"It was a horrible windy day and I got seven staples in my head," he said. "I think it was a collision with James Grady's elbow. "It was a horrible feeling coming away and being so close to Hampden and it not working out.

"We have been talking about that this week and saying it's another chance to get there and put that right.

"It's not nice, guys will play their careers and never get within a sniff of getting to Hampden, so to get so close to it twice within three years.

"It hurt so much the first time; nobody wants to go through that again."

The left-back comes up against his former club at McDiarmid Park but it is a much-changed side from the one he left for Paisley in 2005.

However, he knows enough about the Perth club's run to the semi-finals of both cup competitions last season to appreciate their threat.

Manager Derek McInnes took over from Owen Coyle earlier in the season but the nucleus of the squad who beat four SPL teams, including Rangers, is still there.

"I've been away for three years now, there has been a fair turnaround of players," the 32-year-old said. "There are maybe only four or five that are there from the time I was there.

"I got Coyley for a couple of months as a manager and he is even away now, so I don't know particularly much about them.

"I haven't seen them a great deal since my first season here when we were both in the same division.

"But they have a good history in cup ties, last season they did particularly well against Premier League sides, so we are under no illusions about how hard it's going to be.

"I remember watching them when they went to Motherwell and won. They were deservedly winning, it wasn't a fluke.

"Sometimes you get Premier Division clubs having an off day, but they were winning on merit.

"They have more or less the same squad with a few additions, like Jody Morris, who has made them even stronger."

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