FC St. Pauli

It doesn't happen very often in football that a team that has just lost comes in for such praise. Yet that is exactly what happened last weekend after the game against Holstein Kiel. In a terrific second-division contest, Markus Kauczinski's charges eventually had to admit defeat by the only goal. By the time Sami Allagui's lob came down on top of the bar in the closing stages, at the latest, the Boys in Brown would have deserved a point. "You can see how far we've come on, which is pleasing," said Robin Himmelmann afterwards. " We'll collect ourselves now and then go to Bielefeld to get the points back."

The St. Pauli goalkeeper knows from his own experience just how difficult it is to come away from the Alm with all three points. Last season's excursion to East Westphalia ended in an ignominious 5-0 defeat. Overall, Bielefeld does not feature too highly on the list of favourite St. Pauli destinations. Our last success there dates back to the second game of the 1996-97 season, when Uli Maslo guided his side to a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Jens Scharping and Bernd Eigner. It has thus been more than 22 years since the fans have had a three-point haul to celebrate. Time for that to change!

Nevertheless, a word of warning is due here! Arminia Bielefeld are going through a difficult phase at the moment. After an excellent fourth-place finish last season, Jeff Saibene's side are struggling to replicate that form and have lost their last five competitive fixtures. We therefore face a team who will go all out to reverse that negative trend and add three points to their account. "We need to pick the players up again and get them ready for Sunday – we have an important game ahead of us," said Saibene after the 3-0 home defeat against MSV Duisburg in the second round of the DFB Cup on Wednesday. And St. Pauli's idiosyncrasies against teams in crisis are all too familiar.

For Markus Kauczinski's side it will come down to two aspects on Sunday. First, take the good things from the defeat against Kiel and strike at the right moment. Second, survive the inevitable early onslaught from Bielefeld and then find the right means to wear them down. Then, and only then, will Marvin Knoll and his teammates be able to follow in the footsteps of Christian Springer, Thomas Sobotzik and Bernd Eigner and make history themselves. Twenty-two years is enough.

Photo: Witters