It was back on 29 March 2016 when then Scotland boss Gordon Strachan gave McGinn his full international debut in a 1-0 win over Denmark.
“It was a friendly against a team who had qualified, but we had nothing to play for,” he recalls. “It does seem like a long time ago, but the way we’ve evolved as a group of players is huge.
“How far we’ve come is incredible.”
McGinn says the difference between the expectations then and now is night and day.
“There’s still so much we’ve got to improve, we know that,” he says. “But we’re a small country, fighting against bigger nations. We don’t have the same luxuries that they do. But what we do have is grit and determination.
“Was this our best campaign? No, probably not in terms of performances. But we had one objective and that was to finish first in the group, create some history, and we managed to do that.”
McGinn thinks having an experienced group in the dressing room is helping both Villa and Scotland, with increased strength in depth.
“We’ve got not only myself, Robbo [Andy Robertson], [Scott] McTominay, [Ryan] Christie. We’ve got players playing at a high level in important matches. We’ve had a lot of club captains and that carries on.
“Same now, Lewis Ferguson, Kenny McLean, myself. Obviously Andy Robertson is vice-captain at Liverpool, Grant Hanley [at previous club Norwich], Liam Cooper was the captain of Leeds.
“We’ve had a lot of experience in leadership throughout the group. So at times have we probably lacked the sort of special performances of before. But what we have is leadership, character, belief.
“And you can’t buy that in the shops.”
Now McGinn sees this World Cup as “a chance to amend it” having “not done ourselves justice in the last couple of tournaments”.
“I never did envisage even playing for Scotland,” he admits. “So 10 years ago, I’ll never forget reading my name off that sheet of paper. The feeling, the butterflies, the nerves that ran through my body that day were mental.
“And 10 years down the line, to be preparing for a World Cup, after two major tournaments, it’s surreal to even think about it.”
