FC St. Pauli

…the personnel situation: "Henk Veerman will be out until the international break. We'll have to see how he recovers over the next few weeks. Sebastian Ohlsson is serving a one-match ban and Christopher Buchtmann is ill. Luis Coordes went over on his ankle on Tuesday and will resume training on Monday. We've had some Under-23 players with us in training over the last few days and it may be the case that Maximilian Franzke or Christian Viet are in the squad on Sunday."

…the loss of Henk Veerman: "He's a big miss, as Henk has proved with some important goals and his personality on and off the pitch in recent months. We have to try to replace him. The lads who get a chance need to showcase their strengths and their quality. We have options in that position in Boris Tashchy and Viktor Gyökeres. I hope they'll give us a performance and score some important goals in the next few games."

…striker Dimitrios Diamantakos: "He looked good last week and in the derby at HSV and got the crucial third goal against Osnabrück. Dimi will be play, it's no secret. The only question is who put alongside him. We can play with three strikers or with a front two."

…a stand-in for Sebastian Ohlsson: "We can play with a back three and James Lawrence in the centre but also with Luca Zander at right-back in a four-man defence or on the right of a back three. We'll have a look at it in the last two training sessions and one of them will definitely play."

…SV Sandhausen: "Sandhausen have been searching for a win recently but were impressive in salvaging a point at Bochum last week. That 4-4 draw will give them a confidence boost for the game against us. Sandhausen are a physically strong side with lots of big players capable of carrying a threat at set pieces. We have to fight our corner there. In Kevin Behrens and Aziz Bouhaddouz, they have two dangerous strikers who together have already contributed 16 goals. Behrens is their guarantee of goals with ten. We have to try to keep both of them quiet on Sunday. If we manage that, we'll be on the right track."

…his unblemished record against Sandhausen (five wins out of five): "I'm aware of it. I once won 6-1 at Sandhausen with Hertha BSC. You can always dig the statistics out, but the results are in the past. There's guarantee that things will go well on Sunday. Obviously, I hope we're going to win on Sunday for us and the supporters. We have to give our all again for all the travelling fans. We'll have to be at our best to go back to Hamburg with all three points."

…the first 'real' away win: "We went close often enough. We aim to keep our successful run going. We have to give it everything we've got again as a team if we're to get a win at Sandhausen on Sunday. We have to rise to the task."

…the lack of goals from the bench: "It hasn't bothered me up to now. That can change on Sunday. Boris Tashchy has gone close several times and had chances against Osnabrück again. He has to create his own luck now and I hope he does, but the same goes for all the other players who'll come on in the next few games."

Photos: Witters