Club News

Popov expects cauldron of noise

And the on-loan left-back cannot wait to experience fortress Hawthorns

GORAN Popov is relishing the prospect of playing in front of a full house at The Hawthorns after experiencing the wall of noise created by 2,800 away fans at Villa Park on Sunday.

The Macedonia international, who is on a season-long loan from Dynamo Kiev, completed an impressive debut in Albion’s 1-1 draw with Villa.  

And the 6ft2in left-back hopes to start his first home game when Steve Clarke’s men host QPR on Saturday (ko 3pm).  

“I’m looking forward to playing at home because the fans will be even louder,” said Popov.

“I’m not sure how many fans we had at Villa Park but it sounded like 50,000.

“It’s a big stadium and they made a lot of noise which was great for us.

“It’s not the first time I’ve ran out into a nice stadium but the atmosphere was really good.

“I like to play in front of a lot of people and we had lots of fans at the game and we should thank them for their support as it’s very important to us that they got behind us. 

“They shouted, made a lot of noise and really backed us.

“The supporters can see that we are playing well and we want to continue to impress them.” 

Popov insists he felt relaxed throughout his first Barclays Premier League fixture despite admitting to being frustrated by the full-time scoreline.  

“It was good and I felt very comfortable when I ran out," he insisted.

“It was good to get 90 minutes of football as I haven’t played since I played for my country a few weeks ago.

“I have had some small injuries and I only trained for four days before the game.

“Now I’m fit but I’m a little bit disappointment because we didn’t win.”

He added: “The last 15 minutes was a little bit difficult because they scored.

“I hope we will now be ready to take three points from our next home game.

“I think all the players and the head coach are disappointed that we didn’t get all three points but he also said that we played well and we should be pleased with the way we passed the ball.

“But you never know and this is football so you have to remind yourself that maybe we could have lost.

“It’s good that we got a draw as the last ten minutes was really difficult for us.

“I can see from the way we played in the first three or four games that we have a really good team and maybe we can do something this season.”