FC St. Pauli

"Winning is the most important thing, it gives you renewed energy and boosts your confidence," said Guido Burgstaller in the run-up to the Hannover game. "And when you play the way we did against Kiel, with that level of energy from all the players, you're going to win games," added the striker, who recently returned from a stomach injury. Burgstaller was to be proved right, with the Boys in Brown again bringing good collective energy to the pitch to gain their reward with a three-point haul that ended a run of 13 games without a win.

"That was just the beginning, we have to keep it up," said Omar Marmoush after the long-awaited second win of the season. He will find no dissenters. The task now is to churn out performances of this calibre week in, week out. A good time to start would be the home game against Jahn Regensburg on Sunday (13:30 CET). A second win on the bounce would provide some cheer after an unsatisfactory campaign to date that has produced just 13 points from the first 16 games.

Regensburg also returned to winning ways at the weekend, and what a vital win it was. Mersad Selimbegovic's side came from behind to beat Sandhausen 3-1 to end a five-game winless run and give themselves much-needed breathing space in the relegation battle. The cushion to the drop zone is now six points after their fifth win of the season.

The Bavarians come to the Millerntor aiming to stretch that gap against a St. Pauli side determined to build on the momentum from recent games and end the first half of the season on a positive note by adding another three points to their tally. A third win of the campaign would lift them out of the bottom two for the first time since Week 6. Another high-energy performance of the type shown against Kiel and Hannover is what is required, then. Keep calm and carry on!

Photo: Witters