Kult & Punk: Pauli punish careless Cottbus

The boys had a fantastic day trip. A great win at the Cottbus and mighty fine hospitality. All we have to do in the Sports Pulse office is find them. Never a dull moment with these boys, another 48 bars to go.

St. Pauli more level at the top of Bundesliga as they stretched Energie Cottbus' winless streak to five matches, while VfL Bochum and Chong Tese rained on Edson Buddle�s parade by scoring four goals in the second half to overcome FC Ingolstadt.

Energie Cottbus 1-4 FC St. Pauli

Energie Cottbus are in free fall. Without Dimitar Rangelov, Claus-Dieter Wollitz's side lacked killer instinct in the final third, while goals from Sebastian Schachten, Max Kruse and a double from Marius Ebbers were enough for St. Pauli to take all three points and move level at the top of Bundesliga 2.

Pauli pounce early on

Martin Fenin replaced the suspended Bulgarian as Cottbus looked to bring an end to their four match winless streak. Both sides struggled to break each other down in the early stages, but a well worked St. Pauli set-piece brought about the opener. The corner from the left was headed back across goal by Ralph Gunesch at the back post allowing Sebastian Schachten to nod home unmarked from inside the six yard box (16').

Schachten should have added a second for Pauli moments later when he again found himself unmarked to meet a corner, but couldn't guide his header on target. Cottbus had lost their early impetus, but Leo Bittencourt broke down the right, ghosting past his man before pulling back for Martin Fenin who should have done better with the hosts best chance of the first half.

Pauli punish costly Cottbus defending

Energie were left to rue the missed opportunity when Pauli extended their lead on the stroke of half time. Fin Bartels led the timely counter attack and fed in Kruse who managed to find the roof of the net at the near post (42') to give the visitors a two goal lead at the break. Cottbus came out determined to find an equaliser, but with Fenin wasting several half chances they couldn't find a way past Philipp Tschauner and the Pauli backline.

Tensions boiled over just before the hour mark after a clash between Bartels and Daniel Ziebig that saw Christian Müller get involved with all three players picking up a booking. Pauli looked threatening in transition, but remained relatively untested at the back with Cottbus often making things more complicated than they needed to be. Christopher Schorch tested Tschauner will a stinging long range effort, but seconds later and Pauli had extended their lead.

Ebbers second cancels out Cottbus consolation

Punishing Cottbus'�sloppy defending, Kruse's clipped cross was headed into space by Fabian Boll and on the penalty spot Ebbers did well to get his foot over the ball to beat Thorsten Kirschbaum (76'). Cottbus pulled back a consolation goal late on when Alexander Ludwig's diving header bear Tschauner (82'), but in the end Energie's costly defending had already done too much damage. Ebbers proved the point by grabbing his second shortly before the end heading home unmarked at the front post from Florain Bruns corner (86') to cap off a miserable afternoon for the hosts.