FC St. Pauli

...the injury situation: Jackson Irvine has recovered well from the cut he sustained at Braunschweig and has trained in full, so I assume he'll be available. The same goes for Leart Paqarada. Unfortunately, he wasn't fit in time for Braunschweig, but he will be involved this time. David Nemeth (groin) is ruled out, but everyone else is ready and upbeat."

...his mindset going to the derby: I'm up for it and so are the whole team. The players drew a line under the Braunschweig game relatively quickly. We have a great game ahead of us on our patch at the Millerntor. Everyone's looking forward to it. There's a determination to swing the game in our favour. It doesn’t get much better than this. When I watch the players in training and see how they interact with each other and how fired up they are in the sessions, I know the lads feel the same as I do. Aiming the odd derisory chant or two at the other team, if you can, is part of the game. Local derbies live off that. It's all right for the atmosphere to crackle and the players to get stuck in as long as everything remains within reason - both on and off the pitch. The lads know what's required when the ref blows the whistle and what the fans want to see. They want to see an open game, lots of tackles and a team that goes forward and wants to win the game. That's what we aim to show."

...our local rivals and their style of play: "They're a good side with a particular way of playing football. They're always on the move and always changing position. They see their thing through, it just works and that's why they're top and justifiably so. It's always an advantage when a coach can manage a team for more than one season. The automatisms are already in place, as we saw last season. They’ve strengthened their squad in a targeted manner. Their position in the table and the way they play football speak for themselves. Nevertheless, I still think they'll have problems here at the Millerntor on Friday night."

...their weaknesses and our strengths: HSV always take a certain risk with their style of play. They leave space open that can be exploited, especially on winning possession. I also see the strengths of my own team in not allowing HSV to get going and hurting them with the way we play football. We've been able to do that in recent years - sometimes over 90 minutes, sometimes in spells. If we can keep throwing in the tackles and hassling them, we'll have already achieved a lot."

...the sell-out crowd and his derby expectations: "I hope the fans will play a big role pushing us forward from the beginning and bringing us back into the game if the going gets tough. I'm looking forward to a good match and a St. Pauli team who leave their hearts on the pitch, play with courage and approach the game with an aggressive, determined and fun mindset. A team who hassle the opposition, get the ball forward and try to win the game with everything at their disposal. There'll be an atmosphere we've all missed in the last few derbies. The ground is full and it's going to be electric."

Photos: Witters