FC St. Pauli

Head coach Alexander Blessin: "We're obviously overjoyed. I'm happy not to have to answer any more questions about when we'll get our first home win at the next few news conferences. The momentum was fully on our side when the ball bounced off the inside of the post and went in. We've earned ourselves that luck in recent weeks. Huge compliments to the team. We learned from the Mönchengladbach game and have taken a step forward. Apart from the penalty and the consolation strike we kept Kiel a long way from our goal. We varied the height of our defensive line. We stood deeper after the break, sometimes too deep. We wanted to run counterattacks and we got the second goal from one. The goals were magnificent, it was simply a question of the lads getting their reward. Something that annoys me slightly is that we should have done more for the clean sheet given the way Niko performed today. Taken over the 90 minutes we fully deserved to win."

Jackson Irvine: "We more aggressive in our positioning and braver from the outset. We had some good moments as a result of the pressure we created. Everything comes a bit easier when you finally get the goal. I knew it would go in as soon as Manos hit it. It was a Saliakas special. All in all, we didn't do a lot different than we have been doing. Everyone played well tonight, including Niko. The penalty save was probably the key moment of the game. If that had gone in, we'd have gone into the dressing room and the second half feeling very different. We defended really well and apart from the penalty gave very little away. It's obviously annoying not to have kept a clean sheet, but the win is more important and we're obviously going to celebrate. A lot of people made out the game  was more important than we thought it was. For us it was just another step on our journey."

Nikola Vasilj: "To hear Song 2 again at long last was outstanding. We waited a long time and worked hard for it. We really enjoyed it for all three goals. It was an important win for us. We have to keep going, there's still a long way to go."

Manolis Saliakas: "It's a fantastic feeling to be able to celebrate our first home win with the fans at last. It was obviously special to score the first goal, especially because my mother was in the ground today. I told my friends I would score before the game, so it's great it happened."

Johanns Eggestein: "The team got their reward for all the hard work of recent weeks today. We've worked a lot on improving things. We didn't do enough at Mönchengladbach, but we showed a very different side to ourselves today. We were very solid and repeatedly made a mark up front and eventually got our reward with the goals. For us strikers it's obviously important to reward yourself every so often and enjoy your moment of success. We're working hard defensively and keep plugging away, and goals always do you good then."

Marcel Rapp (Holstein Kiel head coach): "Congratulations to St. Pauli and Alex on the win. We started well, were tenacious and played some intensive football. St. Pauli took the lead with their first chance and then we had a great chance to equalise. We need the momentum to take a point and win a game. I'm not blaming anyone. Anyone can miss a penalty. We had more possession in the second half but were unable to capitalise and didn't create enough chances. We then got caught on the break that we should have prevented beforehand. St. Pauli made it 2-0 and it was tough to come back then. We ran and we battled, but we have to reproach ourselves for lacking punch in footballing terms, especially in the second half."

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters