FC St. Pauli

The group that travelled to Rotenburg (Wümme) consisted of those players who saw little or no action at Nürnberg yesterday. It also included three young players in Lennart Appe and Gwangin Lee (both Under-23s) and Niclas Dühring (Under-19s). Oldenburg drew 1-1 with SV Meppen at the weekend but began without any of the starting eleven from that game. The first chance fell to Igor Matanović following a quick attack, but a VfB defender managed to get in the way of the shot. The third division side then took clinical advantage of some wayward passing from the Hürzeler XI in their own half that resulted in Patrick Hasenhüttl arrowing a shot into the bottom left corner. Sascha Burchert got a hand to it, but couldn't stop the ball going in. Just 120 seconds later, it was 2-0. Oldenburg broke quickly down the left and Kebba Badjie hit an unstoppable shot past Burchert into the top left corner.

Elias Saad almost pulled one back soon after when he latched on to a through ball from Lennart Appe, but his effort from the right-hand channel hit the side netting. Just before the half-hour mark Saad was unable to connect with a low ball into the penalty area from Jannes Wieckhoff, but Lars Ritzka was on hand at the back post and his shot from 13 metres went wide. Johannes Eggestein had no joy either when he headed the ball over Felix Dornebusch towards the far corner from a Wieckhoff free-kick. It looked like he had halved the deficit, but the VfB keeper dived full stretch to turn the ball round the post. Oldenburg again struck in clinical fashion just before the break, Jakob Bookjans netting from nine metres into the bottom right corner from Badjie's assist. A bitterly disappointing first half in which Oldenburg took full advantage of the mistakes.

The Boys in Brown enjoyed much more of the possession after the restart. Just a few minutes in, Eggestein was denied by Dornebusch a second time from 15 metres. The VfB keeper was then unable to get near a 20-metre free-kick from Eggestein, but the ball smacked against the crossbar. Eggestein then turned provider a little later. His cross found Maurides, who had come on as a substitute at the interval, but Dornebusch produced a brilliant reflex save to claw his header off the line. The ball simply wouldn't go in...

The third division outfit repeatedly switched the play quickly, especially on winning possession, and launched their first attack of note midway through the second period. Rafael Brand unleashed a shot from the left channel, but Burchert got both hands up quickly to make the save. With 69 minutes gone, Olapado Afolayan, who had entered the fray a few minutes earlier, placed his shot too centrally from just outside the area following a counterattack. Roggow was also on as a susbstitute and his corner from the left was met by Eggestein at the far post and he came within a whisker of reducing the deficit. At the other end, Oldenburg rediscovered their clinical touch when the Boys in Brown lost possession on the left-hand side. Pascal Richter passed into the centre to Rafael Brand and he chipped the ball over Burchert to make it 4-0. The Hürzeler XI kept plugging away but were unable to find the net in the closing stages. Carlo Boukhalfa missed the target with a long-range effort and then substitute keeper Moritz Onken kept out two attempts by Maurides in as many minutes, and so it ended in a hefty 4-0 defeat.

"We started the game relatively well, but then found ourselves two goals down due to two mistakes in our build-up play," said head coach Fabian Hürzeler after the final whistle. “We can't be doing that. The pitch was deteriorating and making things difficult, but we kept trying to play football and that was the wrong way of going about things. We should have made more deep runs and got in behind their backline and targeted the second balls. That's what we did in the second half and we created more goalscoring opportunities as a result. What we take away from today is that we can't afford to play like that. It wasn't good from us at times. I also expect players to show the right attitude in games like these and one or two didn't do that today. We take some important lessons from the game.”

FC St. Pauli

Burchert - Wieckhoff, Beifus (Roggow 62'), Appe, Ritzka - Aremu, Fazliji (Maurides 46'), Boukhalfa - Eggestein, Matanović (Lee 75'), Saad (Afolayan 62')

Head coach: Fabian Hürzeler

VfB Oldenburg

Dornebusch - Herbst, Schmidt, Stendera, Richter, Bookjans, Kaissis, Badjie, Ndure, Knystock, Hasenhüttl

Head coach: Dario Fossi

Goals: 0-1 Hasenhüttl (11'), 0-2 Badjie (13'), 0-3 Bookjans (43'), 0-4 Brand (79')

Yellow cards: none

Referee: Felix Bahr (Ahlerstedt)

Attendance: approx. 200

Photos: FC St. Pauli