Kult & Punk: St Pauli top of the table score draw

The boys were still recovering from the previous weekend to really notice this game. A score draw was probably a fair result. All the talk was about last weekends set by the Black Finger Nails. Will the boys be on the case?

FC St. Pauli 2-2 Greuther Fürth

Just like their league positions there wasn't much between St. Pauli and Greuther Fürth as they shared the spoils thanks to a last-gasp equalizer from Olivier Occean. Christopher Nöthe's opened the scoring with a toe-poke, goals from second half substitutes Dennis Daube and Mahir Saglik pulled Pauli back into it, but Occean's eighth goal of the season rescued a point for Fürth who had a man sent off late on.

The importance of the match was only proven by the edgy start both teams endured with neither side able to find an early rhythm in the encounter. Sercan Serarer found space early on to force a fine save out of Philipp Tschauner with the keeper clawing the ball out of the top corner. The intensity in the match led to constant fouling, which limited the goal scoring opportunities at either end. Dennis Naki was proving to be Pauli's biggest threat up front, but six yards out, couldn't find the target from Fin Bartel's cross.

Action aplenty

Markus Thorandt followed suit soon after, but it was Fürth's efficiency that told once again just before half-time. Heinrich Schmidtgal picked out an inch-perfect pass for Nöthe to run onto and, through on goal, the striker made no mistake toe-poking the ball under Tschauner and into the bottom corner (44'). The hosts stepped it up in the second half and found a way through soon after the restart. A flowing move in transition saw Fabian Boll play in Daube, who had come on at the break, and the midfielder kept his composure to slip the ball under Max Grün (54').

With the wind in Pauli's sails Naki's snapshot kept Grün on his toes, but it was his replacement, super-sub Saglik who gave Pauli the lead when Thomas Kleine committed himself to ground allowing the striker to cut inside and find the far corner (75'). Fürth were reduced to ten men late on when Milorad Pekovic picked up a second bookable offence for catching Saglik late (81'). Bernd Nehrig hit the post with a cross-cum-shot, but Fürth snatched a point when Teyfun Pektürk broke down the right to ping the ball into the box where Occean got the final touch to level things up at the death (90').