Kult & Punk: St Pauli get over Cup exit with League win.

FC St. Pauli 3-1 Alemannia Aachen

St. Pauli recovered from their DFB Cup exit at Eintracht Trier and provisionally moved up to second place on seven points after beating early cellar-dwellers Aachen 3-1, who are still without a point.One apiece early on Aachen made a bright start against their nervous-looking hosts and after only seven minutes they found themselves in front. An attempted clearance by Markus Thorandt was blocked on the line by St. Pauli keeper Philipp Tschauner and Fabian Boll's attempted clearance dropped perfectly for Tobias Feisthammel to lash home.

The goal seemed to shake St. Pauli awake and when they upped the pressure around the quarter-hour mark, they were swiftly rewarded. This time the desperate defending was at the other end, Aachen right back Mario Erb attempting to chest the ball back to keeper Boy Waterman only to lay it up on a plate for Max Kruse, who slipped it into the net with thanks. Back on level terms, both sides began to open up and there were chances at either end, Fin Bartels firing one over the bar for St. Pauli (27') and Tschauner fishing a shot from Alemannia's Alper Uludag out the bottom corner (34').Contentious penaltyA great move by the home side opened up the Aachen defence four minutes before half time, but Marius Ebbers' final shot was blocked on the line by Erb, partially atoning for his earlier blunder. Unfortunately, Ebbers fell awkwardly on his arm in the attempt and had to be taken off the field and brought to hospital immediately.

Shortly after that, Florian Bruns dropped inside the Alemannia area under a seemingly innocuous challenge from Shervin Radjabali-Fardi. The referee pointed to the spot and Bruns did the honours himself to send St. Pauli into the break in front.

Much of the second half was an evenly-balanced affair, with St. Pauli squandering several good chances to extend their lead on the break. In a hectic closing phase Tschauner kept them in front with a fine stop from Radjabali-Fardi, Aachen's Manuel Junglas was sent off for a second bookable offence (88') and sub Mahir Saglik rattled the bar for St. Pauli before they finally made the result safe, Saglik setting up an easy third for Kruse in added time.