Kult & Punk: St Pauli keep the pressure on.

The boys returned to action in Zoe's Bar, after finding their way home from Munich via Sat Bav. An afternoon of guest ale ToeNail Clippings and a heavy game of darts, won by one leg, against Sinbad & The Arrows of Doom, meant that Andy James was again in charge of the Quill. The new outfits for Zoe's Bar Dart Team have arrived, with the catchy tag line of Chuck It, Love it.

A fine first-half strike from Moritz Volz ensured FC St. Pauli kept the heat on the leading trio in Bundesliga 2 with a 1-0 success at home to lowly Karlsruher SC.

Die Kiezkicker hardly shone against their relegation-threatened opponents in a match punctuated by poor passes on a bumpy pitch in Hamburg, but Volz produced a moment of inspiration to net the winner shortly before the break. The win takes St. Pauli to within a point of Fortuna Düsseldorf in the promotion play-off place, while Karlsruhe miss out on the chance to escape the automatic demotion spots.

Cagey first quarter

Clear favourites heading into the clash, St. Pauli unsurprisingly controlled proceedings on home turf with their visitors content to sit back and await the opportunity to counter. Max Kruse was sent sprinting down the left and fired wide from a tight angle on seven minutes, but the better chance fell to KSC moments later as young Hakan Calhanoglu squared for Mike Terrazzino, who was unable to finish with only goalkeeper Benedikt Pliquett to beat.

Subsequently Andre Schubert's home charges seemed bereft of ideas going forward. Misplaced passes were the order of the day as they attempted to lure their opponents forward by knocking the ball around at the back, a tactic KSC simply refused to fall for.

Volz hits a screamer

Still there was always the chance that St. Pauli's quality would lead to chances and one glaring opportunity was spurned just past the half-hour mark as Kevin Schindler blazed Florian Bruns' low cross over from barely six yards out. The Millerntor faithful were soon celebrating, however, as former Fulham man Volz strode forward from the back before sending a fine dipping volley over Orlishausen and into the net.

With the lead behind them, St. Pauli played with added fluency in the early second period, though long shots were the limit with Deniz Naki going closest on 55 minutes. KSC were largely on the back foot but ought to have drawn level when Steffen Haas popped up completely free in the box, but the midfielder failed to realise the space at his disposal and rushed a tame header at the untroubled goalkeeper.

Chances a rarity

Otherwise the traffic was largely one-way. Naki continued to prove a handful, skipping through the away defence just past the hour and teeing up substitute Marius Ebbers, who slammed narrowly wide of the far post from the right of the box. Bruns finally found space to test his range five minutes later, but his crisp effort was light work for Orlishausen.

Despite the best efforts of the visitors, chances remained a rarity in the latter stages and St. Pauli had little trouble hauling a scrappy but important three points over the line to extend their unbeaten streak to five games and stretch KSC's run to three straight defeats.