St Mirren: Popescu unable to get hands on Old Firm tickets

St Mirren defender Mihai Popescu has revealed that he wanted to buy a ticket to Sunday’s Old Firm game in order to have look at some players he’s not yet come up against in Scotland - but was too late as all the tickets for the crunch tie were snapped up. 
The 25-year-old helped Saints to a big three points on Saturday which saw them leapfrog visitors Dundee at the bottom of the Premiership table.
And, as he stepped up his own scouting mission, he even asked teammate Mateo Muzek to ask Croats on both sides of the Glasgow divide with no luck.
He said: "I didn't watch it. I had a problem at home. When I go home I will watch the game. I know some of the Celtic players because one of my first games here was against them and they're a good team. We will watch a video of them so we will know what we need to do.
“I wanted to watch the game live but I couldn't find a ticket. I asked a lot of people here about tickets, but they said I would need to buy them two months ago. I didn't know that was the case. But if I stay here for a long time I'll have the chance to watch the game live.

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“My teammate Mateo is a Croatian guy and Celtic and Rangers both have Croatian players. I spoke with Mateo last week and he spoke with the guys from Celtic and Rangers two weeks before to ask about tickets. But they only get five or six tickets – not too many - and they had family and friends to give the tickets to first. They said if they had spares they could give me them no problem but they did not have any spare. But that’s normal, when I have tickets they go to my family and friends first as well. It’s no problem. I just need to try and find a ticket to buy for the next Old Firm game.”
Popescu, who made his St Mirren debut against Alloa in the Scottish Cup, says three points on Saturday were crucial as they came from behind to dump Jim McIntyre’s side. 

Popescu hoping Saints can build on Dundee win as they take on Celtic tonight
But the big centre half insists that doesn’t mean there is no pressure on tonight’s game against Celtic, especially when you are in a relegation battle. 

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And he’s hoping to sample a great atmosphere in Paisley once again. 
He continued: "We needed the win on Saturday. It was good for our confidence and we look forward to Wednesday. Why shouldn't we be confident of getting a good result against them? I know they're a good team here in Scotland but we play at home, we are in front of our fans and hopefully a lot of them will come to the stadium. Anything from the game is good for us - a point or a win.

"I think there is pressure. For us, every game is with pressure. We are fighting to avoid relegation and we need to take points so there is pressure there in all of our games. We need to take points more than the other two teams so we can put the pressure on them. It will be a hard game against Celtic but I don’t care who it’s against – Celtic, Dundee or other teams - we go out with the mentality we need to go out and win and take points to save us from danger.

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“Yes, I like when the fans come to the stadium to support us. In Romania the teams I played for all had good fans and it’s great for football when that happens. It’s great to see the St Mirren fans get behind their team.”