A good result in an altogether fairly mediocre game. 1860 had had as bad as start to the season as we had - without the red cards - but we had the home advantage, with 22217 watching in spite of the 1000 tickets returned from Munich, which weren't allowed to be sold in Hamburg for reasons known only to the German football authorities.
Morena had served his 2-game ban, but wasn't in the squad, as he'd managed to get a groin strain, so Gunesch and Eger made up the central defence, and U23 player Denis Theissen took Fabio's place on the bench. Boll was the sole defensive midfielder, with Bruns, Ludwig and Trojan as captain making up the rest of the midfield, and Hennings and Schnitzler up front.
1860 kicked off towards the South, but it was St. Pauli who had the first chance after 40 seconds, with a Hennings cross headed out to Bruns, who laid the ball forward but then shot over from 16 yards.
St. Pauli dominated the first half, and were unfortunate not to have scored a handful. In the 4th minute, a Trojan corner on the left was headed on by Rothenbach, and Schnitzler just missed the ball at the right post. Trojan had another chance in the 17th minute, after a nice 1-2 with Bruns, but his shot from the left of the area went straight to Tschauner in the 1860 goal.
1860 had their first sort of chance 3 minutes later, when ex-H$Ver Benny Lauth placed a shot straight at Hain, but on the whole it was a harmless display from the "Lions".
The decisive moment of the game came in the 23rd minute. A rather non-descript attempt at an attack by St. Pauli was cleared into the centre circle, where Eger headed the ball right to Gunesch, just inside his own half. He sent a 50-yard pass across to the left of the 1860 penalty area - Schnitzler had to run back, as he was offside, but Trojan wasn't, and he had another moment of brilliance as he sneaked past two defenders and wrong-footed Tschauner with his first touch, sending the ball over to the right, and then all he had to do was knock the ball into the empty goal from 8 yards.
Schnitzler had the 2-0 at his feet in the 34th minute, when he latched on to a slack backpass from Berhalter, but instead of lobbing the keeper, who was already on his way down, he tried to tunnel him. Doh! But on the whole, René had a good game (unlike Hennings or Ludwig); he kept the opposition busy, which was enough.
No substitutions at half-time, although 1860 could have done with some, as only Bierofka on their left really looked like he meant business, but in the 54th minute, London bus style, 3 came at once. I'd noticed about 5 minutes into the 2nd half that Trojan had more or less stopped; he was just walking around the centre circle, looking rather bad. Sure enough, he had to be taken off for Hoilett, and at the same time, di Salvo and Thorandt came off for Schäffler and Gebhart.
I was worried that Trojan had declared himself fit too soon after his torn ligament, or had got another knock, but according to him, he was recovering from some bug, which made itself felt again at the start of the 2nd half. Let's hope he doesn't catch rabies, or he might not even be able to play for 30 minutes!
With Gebhart coming on and Trojan leaving, 1860 became a lot more aggressive. They were lucky not to concede another goal when Tschauner totally misjudged a situation in the 55th minute, coming out when he shouldn't have, and Schnitzler's lob was taken off the line (although it would probably have gone past anyway). But 1860 seemed to have a lot more of the possession in the last half hour, and the St. Pauli defence had their work cut out to defuse a number of scrambles in the penalty area, even if Hain never had to do anything outstanding to prevent an equaliser.
Their best chance came in the 65th minute, when Gebhart managed a solo through half of the St. Pauli defence, but sent his shot wide of the right post. We were making it too damn exciting again.
Schultz came on for Ludwig in the 74th, which was the right thing for Stani to do, if a bit late, as Alex had had another disappointing game, and Timo is the sort of player you need in situations like that. It wasn't exactly an exotic cavalcade of footballing entertainment; it was down to the bone, with 4 yellows for 1860 and one for us (Boll, dissent), so shoring up the defence was just what was needed.
Brunnemann replaced Schnitzler in the 85th minute, and managed to irritate the opposition and get fouled long enough for us to get the win.
I should mention Hoilett a bit more. He's no substitute for Trojan, even though he was, but his runs down the left were very useful in taking off the pressure just when we needed it, and at least one yellow card for 1860 came because he was ready to break and "had" to be stopped. He's very quick.
Hain was very chuffed to finally have got a clean sheet, but that was mostly due to 1860 having been so crap up front, and our defence (all 8 of them on occasions) being so solid. So we're now 8th, which is OK, after Osnabrück managed to lose away today to newly-promoted Ingolstadt. Next up is the fun trip to Rostock. I'll watch it in the pub.
Anyway, here are the
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St. Pauli - better than 1860 München, not as good as Fürth.
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