FC St. Pauli

Stuttery return from the winter break

This season has been a bit of a bumpy ride for Arminia, who overwintered in 16^th place with 14 points from 17 games. Jürgen Kramny, who took charge in November, is already their third coach this term. Nevertheless, Bielefeld have made a rather stuttery start to the second half of the campaign under their new coach. A 2-1 home win over fellow relegation candidates 1860 Munich was sandwiched between defeats at Karlsruhe (3-2) and Union Berlin (3-1). Bielefeld's record in the DFB Cup is much better, however. Wins over RW Essen (5-4 on penalties), Dynamo Dresden (1-0) and Astoria Walldorf (6-5 on penalties) have taken them to the last eight. As the only remaining second-division side, they travel to Bundesliga outfit Eintracht Frankfurt at the end of February.

Goal machine Fabian Klos

Fabian Klos, 29, can look back on an impressive record since moving to Bielefeld in 2011, consisting of 98 goals and 39 assists in 207 appearances. The Arminia captain is the club's leading scorer this term – as in the five seasons prior to this one – with nine goals. He is followed by his strike partner, Andreas Voglsammer, on five and left-back Sebastian Schuppan with three.

Squad news

Jürgen Kramny will again be without goalkeeper Baboucarr Gye (broken hand), right-back Steffen Lang (hairline fracture of the fibula) and midfielder Manuel Prietl (shoulder). Centre-back Julian Börner served a one-match ban last week and is available for selection after recovering from a stomach upset. Manuel Hornig (cold) and Sören Brandy (muscle trouble) are also expected to return to the squad.

Impressive atmosphere

Bielefeld have taken 15 of their 17 points at the Schüco Arena, where attendances average 16,625 this season. They recorded their biggest crowd so far (25,138) on matchday five for the visit of Hannover. According to the club website some 17,000 tickets have already been sold for Sunday's game, another reason why the Boys in Brown should expect a red-hot relegation battle at the atmospheric Alm stadium.

Reunion for Lienen and Hain

St. Pauli boss Ewald Lienen and goalkeeper coach Mathias Hain both return to their former stomping ground on Sunday. In a two-year spell with the club between 1980 and 1982 Lienen scored a dozen times in 60 appearances. He also coached Arminia in the 2010/11 second-division season. "Matze" Hain kept goal for Bielefeld from 2000 to 2008, making a total of 243 appearances.

Reputation as a yo-yo team

Since being relegated from the Bundesliga at the end of the 2008/09 campaign, Arminia Bielefeld have been through a series of ups and downs. After finishing in the top half of the table in their first season in tier 2 they crashed headlong into League 3 a year later. Here they again failed to live up to expectations, finishing only 13^th in the final table. The headlines were positive a year later, though, when Arminia won promotion back to Bundesliga 2, but the joy didn't last long and at the end of the season they were back in League 3. By coming straight back up a year later Arminia confirmed their reputation as a yo-yo team – though they did finish last term in 12^th place.

Photo: DFL