FC St. Pauli

...dealing with being a squad player at the moment: "To be completely honest, the lads have been performing like this for weeks, so there are few reasons for the coach to change anything. Everyone tries to go flat out in training and stake a claim for a place in the team. You can put yourself in contention even when we're winning if you excel in training. I've always said my focus is on developing as a player. I keep working hard every week and that really helps me not to get frustrated if I don't play at the weekend. I'm trying to improve and I want to be ready when the chance comes. It's about showing the coach he can put you on at any time. There are perhaps still a few details I need to improve. I'm sure I'll keep getting lots of minutes in future then."

...head coach Fabian Hürzeler: "He's very meticulous when it comes to details and pays attention to the smallest things, whether it's passing to the correct foot or the pace of the pass. These things could be the difference between getting a chance to shoot or not. You can always go and talk to him, which is also important. He tries to be matter-of-fact and calm about everything, but on matchday he's louder and tries to give us a lift."

...Heidenheim coach Frank Schmidt: "He has a very clear idea of how he wants to play football and has shown over the years that it can be successful. Every player knows what the coach wants from them and has something to go by. He works well with director of sport Holger Sanwald. They know exactly which players they want. They strengthened well last summer and that makes Heidenheim even stronger this year than they have been in previous years."

...Heidenheim's style of play: "They work harder than any other team in the league every player does their share of defending. Tim Kleindienst is involved in so many challenges, up front and in defence, and that runs through the whole team. It's really hard to get a chance to shoot and score. They also have qualities in attack, where they attach a lot of value to set pieces and counter-attacking."

...the match at Heidenheim: "I expect an extremely intense game. Heidenheim are very hard to play against, especially at home. They man-mark you in defence and sometimes all over the park with lots of direct duels. We have to show we want to win the tackles even more than Heidenheim do."

...the winning run and being in the chasing pack: "We simply want to win games. Winning nine has given us a boost. It's always the next game that counts and that will be extremely tough. We have the desire to take the three points at Heidenheim. And it doesn't matter whether we're chasing anyone or not. We simply want to improve and play well - and win games, of course. We'll see what comes out at the end. We have some really tough games ahead of us. We can't think three or four weeks into the future now, it’s Heidenheim first for us."

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters