FC St. Pauli

Head coach Timo Schultz: "Congratulations to Rostock on a deserved victory. It was a fast-paced game in the first half with chances at both ends. Rostock put us under pressure and forced us into mistakes we don't normally make. With the change at half-time we tried to add a bit more depth but we created relatively little up front and the pressure was too great. Rostock eventually took the lead with a goal they forced to some extent. We had more control of the game after that but unfortunately we couldn't play our way through like we're used to. That meant we didn't have enough chances, and the chances we did have we didn't take. If you don't score and concede one, you lose the game."

Marcel Hartel: "We simply weren't good enough. We tried to hit long balls and didn't create chances from open play as well as we have been doing. We let Rostock into the game like that in the second half and they deserved to open the scoring. We didn't play with much courage and went with long balls up to Simon in the hope of getting forward. You can't hold your own like that here, though, and that's why we lost. The fans don't like it, of course, and neither do we. We wanted to take three points but fell short. We need to analyse the game quickly and then turn our focus to the Bremen game."

Luca Zander: "It certainly didn't go the way we envisaged. We had a good game plan but weren't able to put it into practice. We wanted to bring more quality to the pitch, but didn't manage it too often. We didn't win enough challenges and second balls. We have to accept the blame for that today. We were prepared for Rostock's style of play but should have got stuck in more. Everyone was really up for it before the game, the attitude was right, but on the pitch it simply didn't go how we wanted. Rostock defended well and closed down the space, which gave us little room to get in behind their back four. They also kept things tight in front of the backline, which didn't make things easy for us. The defeat hurts and will continue to hurt tomorrow but we have to go again on Monday. We have a really attractive home game against Bremen next week and we want to win it."

Jens Härtel (Rostock coach): "We played really well today and did a lot of what we set out to do. We can be proud of the passion and the tactical discipline my team showed today. And we needed that today against a really good team. We saw throughout the game that they're capable of creating things, so we had to stay solid at the back. The players did that very well whenever St. Pauli tried to hit long balls, especially against Makienok, who isn't easy to defend. We made good use of our opportunities to switch the play today. The decision to move Svante Ingelsson up front alongside John Verhoek worked very well, in particular in the first half, when we had some really good chances to take the lead. I'm proud of the way we responded today after the reverse fixture, when we weren't our true selves. On a good day like today you can beat St. Pauli and that's what we did."

Photos: Witters