FC St. Pauli

The Boys in Brown missed out on the hoped-for home win against Werder Bremen last week. After 90 hard-fought minutes with a multitude of chances at both ends, it was a result they could live with – despite two controversial refereeing decisions that went against them – but that did not mean they were satisfied, of course.

In contrast, the mood in the Sandhausen camp was buoyant after a 2-1 win in a six-pointer at fellow strugglers Dynamo Dresden that saw them take a big step towards second-division safety. The gap to the Saxony outfit, who have yet to land a victory in the second half of the season and sit firmly in the play-off spot, is now six points. That Sandhausen are in with a genuine chance of avoiding the drop is down to a massive upturn in form in the second half of the season after making more adjustments to their squad in the winter break than any other side apart from Ingolstadt. Promotion-chasing Werder Bremen (27 points), FC Schalke 04 (24) and FC Nürnberg (22) are the only teams to collect more points than Sandhausen (20) in this period. An eleventh successive season in the second tier thus looks well within their reach.

The Boys in Brown, for their part, have been playing at this level a year longer than their hosts, making Saturday's game a meeting of second-division veterans. The remaining five matches will determine whether they have to plan for a 12^th season in tier two. Relegation battles have been a recurring theme since falling through the Bundesliga trapdoor in 2011, but the Schultz XI are well in contention at the top this term. They go to Sandhausen sitting in third spot and intent on securing another three points to bolster their promotion bid. A look at the league table may give the impression that this is the easiest game of the run-in, but the home side will be a hard nut to crack. "Sandhausen are fighting to avoid the drop and they'll show that against us," said Jakov Medić in midweek. "It's going to be a really tough game, not an easy one."

Anything is possible in this league, as Sandhausen, among others, have demonstrated this season. Alois Schwartz's side have yet to lose against a top side in the second half of the season, taking a point off Heidenheim, HSV, Darmstadt and Bremen. A record of just two defeats in their last 12 outings underlines how difficult they are to beat. As usual, the Boys in Brown will be focusing on themselves, however, and go into the game targeting another quality performance to return to Hamburg with three points in the bag.

Photo: Witters