FC St. Pauli

Head coach Timo Schultz: “We worked extremely hard and started well with two or three opportunities early on before we got the opening goal. It was a peach of a cross from Leart Paqarada and an outstanding header by Jackson Irvine. Although we had control of the game and various chances after that, our finishing wasn’t neat enough. We were obviously a little unlucky with the shot that hit the post. It would have been game over if we’d made it 2-0 but we left them a lifeline. Sandhausen scored twice, fortunately the first one was offside. We simply didn’t defend the second set piece well enough, especially the second ball. It’s extremely annoying because we had our chances after that. We have to put in a huge amount of effort to force the ball over the line at the moment. Today we only managed it once unfortunately and it ended 1-1. We would have loved all three points, but you don’t always get what you want. There are some things that would appear in a different light if we’d won today. We’ll have to analyse it was only enough for a draw in the end.”

Director of sport Andreas Bornemann: “We simply didn’t put the game to bed today. The equaliser was bitterly disappointing, and it came from Sandhausen’s specialist discipline, a set piece. We had a host of chances to win the game but failed to do so. In the second half we lacked the intensity of the first, which is always dangerous against Sandhausen. The performance again should have been good enough for three points, the same against Paderborn. If you want to make progress in the table, you need three points, so we’re obviously not satisfied.”

Leart Paqarada: “We gave them two or three set pieces and they were all dangerous. We have to work on that. We knew Sandhausen wouldn’t play the prettiest football and we gave little away overall. That’s something we can build on, but it still feels more like a defeat. In the last two games I haven’t performed as well as I have done in the last year or two but that’s only human. It was a very good team performance from us today. I still know three of four of the Sandhausen lads and Alois Schwartz gave me my chance in the professional game, so it’s still a special game for me against them, even though a lot of the lads from my time are no longer there.”

Jackson Irvine: “It was a tough game against a team who pack their defence. We created enough chances to win it but couldn’t get the second goal. I always try to take the positives out of a game and we did a lot of things right today. We’re just lacking that little bit of luck or whatever you want to call it. We have to learn from the games we don’t win. We’ve been really competitive and have to draw the right conclusions from the games we’ve drawn. We have to convert it into positive energy and keep working hard.”

Alois Schwartz (SV Sandhausen head coach): “We’re obviously happy to take something from the Millerntor. It wasn’t a bad away performance from us. We kept them away from our goal and didn’t allow them to get going as a result. We had some good opportunities to break but tried to play the final ball much too quickly, which meant we didn’t really get into the final third. We needed to show more composure there and play an extra pass occasionally. We then went one down, a nice goal that was difficult to defend in the middle, but we should have moved out sooner to block the cross. After the break, we wanted to show more courage and keep it simple. St. Pauli left us a lifeline when they hit the post. Games can be like that. They don’t score, we don’t let it unsettle us and then we get the equaliser. It was obvious St. Pauli would come again and the stadium would come again and we’d have to stand firm. We then hit the post rather fortunately. If that had gone in, we’d even have taken all three points. In the end, however, you have to say we earned the point with a battling performance to finally get something away from home.”

Photos: Witters