FINAL AWAY GAME OF 2016 - BOYS IN BROWN EYE RESULT AGAINST FÜRTH
Saturday, 10. December 2016, 16:03 Uhr
The year draws to a close with two league fixtures left to go for the Boys in Brown. Before VfL Bochum guest at the Millerntor next week, Ewald Lienen's side travel to Greuther Fürth for the final away game of 2016.
With six points up for grabs before the Christmas break, three of them at Fürth on Sunday, his players must now muster all their resources. Lienen's men came within touching distance of their first win in three months against Kaiserslautern last time out but eventually had to settle for a point after what was probably their best performance in recent weeks and months.
The St. Pauli boss called the display against the Red Devils "a small but important step forward". Pleasingly, it was the first clean sheet of the season. The objective now is to repeat the positive defensive showing and get another result. Fürth go into the game on a bit of a roll, however. The Shamrocks dismissed head coach Stephan Ruthenbeck after collecting an unsatisfactory 14 points from the first 13 games and replaced him with Janos Radoki. Under his stewardship, the Franconians won their last two crunch matches against Bielefeld and Karlsruhe, both by 2-1 scorelines, to widen the gap to the relegation play-off spot from three to eight points.
Narrowing the gap is the target for our boys, not widening it. Against bogey team Fürth – St. Pauli have won just five of the 24 meetings between the two sides, albeit both matches last season – three points are an absolute must if they are to reduce the gap to Aue, Karlsruhe, Bielefeld and 1860 Munich.
Lienen will be without several key players yet again, however. Last week Robin Himmelmann (muscle strain) joined team-mates such as Christopher Buchtmann and Jan-Philipp Kalla on a lengthy injury list. His replacement, Philipp Heerwagen, will make his first start between the posts in the league since late April 2014. Heerwagen did feature in the first round of the DFB Cup at VfB Lübeck earlier this season, though, a game the Boys in Brown won 3-0.
The former Bochum keeper will therefore be looking to make it three clean sheets out of three this term. A solid defensive performance would lay the foundation for the second win of the season. At the same time, however, the Boys in Brown have to end their 444-minute goal drought. If they do, there is no reason why Lienen's side can't pick up their first win on the road since March to make the final away trip of 2016 a resounding success.
Photo: Witters
