Kult & Punk: St Pauli take vital points

The boys are laughing again. St Pauli pick up full points over the weekend and the district have a nude ale festival. The lads did well in the topless darts. Sorry no pictures for the fest and thankfully none for the topless darts (believe me that's for the best!)

FC St. Pauli 3-0 FC Hansa Rostock

Pauli's promotion hopes are still alive and kicking after their confidence-boosting win against a Rostock side, who were undone by their defensive fragility as opposed to their lack of threat in front of goal.

Pauli pounce

In a physical and feisty opening dominated by niggling challenges in midfield, Rostock acquitted themselves well as they held their own against Pauli's early pressure. However having neutralised each other for the most part in the first ten minutes it was the hosts, who broke the deadlock. Fin Bartels was played into space on the left to provide a cross that Marius Ebbers at full stretch managed to stab home at the back post.

Hansa pushed forward in search of an immediate response as Marek Mintal drew a sprawling save out of Philipp Tschauner with a long range effort before Dominic Peitz's header needed a touch from the Pauli keeper to take it past the post. However it was the hosts who almost added a second on the stroke of half-time when Bartels burst past two players in the penalty area only for the strong hand of Jörg Hahnel deny the midfielder from a tight angle.

Mighty Marius

Pauli immediately put themselves on the front foot in the second-half and reaped the rewards within five minutes of the restart, when Ebbers broke in behind before toe-poking the ball through the legs of Hahnel. Sebastian Peltzer rattled the side netting in response before Tom Weilandt stung the palms of Tschauner with a rasping effort, but a goal continued to prove elusive for the visiting side.

Ebbers should have wrapped up his hat-trick with 15 minutes remaining, but having been played through on the counter-attack the striker could only hit his first time strike directly at Hahnel. However the two-goal hero made up for his complacency by setting-up Pauli's third when he broke into the box on the left before drilling the ball across the face of goal for Bartels to wrap up the win with his close range finish ten minutes before the end.