Playing at Celtic Park will be incredible, says St Mirren newcomer Owen Oseni

New St Mirren signing Owen Oseni admits it will be a dream come true to play in front of 60,000 supporters at Celtic Park on Sunday.

The Irishman enjoyed a whirlwind few days after completing his transfer to the Paisley club from National League side Gateshead on New Year’s Day, then making his debut in the loss to Kilmarnock 24 hours later.

Now the 21-year-old is relishing the prospect of taking on Celtic at Parkhead in front of the largest crowd of his career to date.

He said: “Celtic Park will obviously be the best atmosphere and the best stadium I’ve ever played in. I’ve always dreamed of playing there as a kid so I am really looking forward to Sunday.

“You can’t compare Celtic to any stadium in England in terms of the Championship or below – it’s comparable with Premier League stadiums. So, for me to experience that at such a young age will be incredible.

“I think we had an average of 1,000 or so (at Gateshead) although we had a local derby against Hartlepool and had about 2,000. But I can’t compare it to 60,000 on Sunday.”

Oseni hailed former Middlesbrough and Reading striker Leroy Lita as one of his biggest influences, having played alongside him at Nuneaton Borough.

He added: “I was 20 when I played with Leroy. He told me it’s going to be tough as a striker to go into (new) dressing rooms because they expect you to come in and deliver straight away.

“But he told me to just take my time because it will all come good in the end. He was really good at helping me out and giving me advice.

“I stayed in touch with him and actually I was just speaking to him before the Killie game and he wished me all the best.”

Meanwhile, St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson said his team have to focus on themselves and not on Celtic following the latter’s surprise derby defeat to Rangers.

Robinson said: “We have to worry about ourselves. We know the quality Celtic have and what they can do, but we will need to put in a much better performance than we did at Kilmarnock to get anything out of it.

“Celtic have quality throughout their team and that is the first game they have lost all season. I wouldn’t imagine it will be too big a setback to them.

“They will still be fully prepared for Sunday and we, as a collective and a management team, have to be much better than we were at Kilmarnock.”