FC St. Pauli

The game of football has just about seen it all. From mascots showing the referee the red card and dogs biting players on the backside to goals collapsing before the kick-off, the beautiful game has witnessed all manner of weird and wonderful happenings. One of the few things yet to occur in football, however, is a guest appearance by FC Würzburger Kickers at the Millerntor, so it's good to be able to cross that one off the list on Sunday. The side coached by former St. Pauli man Bernd Hollerbach travel north looking to end a run of 11 games without a win. Something the Boys in Brown will be out to prevent, of course.

Last week's win at Nürnberg, the result of a solid defensive performance and a hitman in Aziz Bouhaddouz, who was where all good strikers should be when it mattered, was so important. Two goals, three points. Thank you very much and home we go. Yet though the win lifted the Boys in Brown out of the drop zone on Friday evening, the table made less pleasant reading once the weekend's round of matches was over. Results elsewhere meant that Lienen's men found themselves back in a relegation berth. But when the situation turns critical, FC St. Pauli pulls together, unleashes the famous Millerntor roar, and faces the brewing storm head on.

"We now have to lick our wounds and get ready to face Würzburg at the Millerntor. I can't wait!", said goalkeeper Philipp Heerwagen after the crucial win at Nürnberg. That, in a nutshell, has been the prevailing mood in and around the club in the run-up to Sunday. Ewald Lienen is no exception. "We've been in this heated phase of the season for a very long time. There's no question that we go into every game highly motivated," he said at yesterday's pre-match press conference.

The game is of vital importance to the visitors, too, of course. On completion of the first half of the season, Hollerbach's team occupied sixth place in the table with 27 points, but since then they have added just five more to that total. As a result, they have slipped to 12^th, just two points clear of the relegation play-off spot currently occupied by Arminia Bielefeld on 30. Nevertheless, Würzburg come to the Millerntor buoyed by a committed performance against frontrunners Hannover 96 that earned them a goalless draw. "The way we played was top-class. We did a great job against a quality outfit and defended very well," said Hollerbach in praise of his team, who didn't allow a single shot on goal during the 90 minutes.

Regardless of how well the opposition did last week, however, the task for the Boys in Brown tomorrow will be to focus entirely on their own performance. With the business end of the season approaching, players and fans alike will do their utmost to ensure that the book of curious football stories is not another anecdote richer after Sunday. Aux armes!

Photo: Pressefoto Eibner