FC St. Pauli

Head coach Fabian Hürzeler: "It was a tough game, as we expected. Mersad always comes up with something against us, like he did when he was at Regensburg, where we had problems. That was the case in the first half when we had no clarity in our patterns. We did have a few situations where we played our way through, but we lacked punch in the final third. When Rostock did get through, we had a good keeper in Niko, who defused the big chance. We said we had to be patient in the second half and it would be hard for Rostock to run at us with such intensity for 90 minutes. We switched things round a bit and I'm glad we took advantage of a spell of pressure to go in front, though I'm much happier about the clean sheet. That's always the foundation and we defended really well after the break, both from open play and set pieces. In that respect I have to single out Marco Knoop, who's responsible for the defensive set plays. Rostock were better in the first half, we were better in the second. We'll take the win, it's up for others to decide whether it was lucky or not."

Jackson Irvine: "I scored in a home game against Hansa for the third time in a row, which is obviously an incredible feeling. We didn't have any answers in the first half when it was a similar game to Hannover last week. It was tough and we have Niko to thank again, but credit to the team for showing more courage after that and finding our rhythm again. We played very well in the second half. As captain I have to lead from the front and I try to start doing that in training. You can sense in the district and from the people how important football and the next game is for them. As players we recognise that, and we know what it means to the fans. The support was brilliant!"

Hauke Wahl: "We had a few problems in the first half because Rostock were able to keep the entire backline busy with their two strikers. We couldn't play the ball out from the back and made the odd mistake too many, which allowed them to break. We did that much better in the second half. We kept getting the ball out wide and Jojo did an amazing job today, repeatedly collecting the ball and laying it off. The result is a fair reflection, especially on account of the second half. And what can you say about Niko? We're so glad to have him in goal because he's always capable of producing saves like that. It was a really important game today, one with tremendous significance for the fans. You could feel it. The atmosphere kept us going in the second half. The crowd cheered every tackle, which is normal here, but it was even more special today. The support of the fans was incredible and they'll be crucial next week as well. Today was lots of fun, but it's only three points. We have another three really important games in front of us."

Mersad Selimbegović (Hansa Rostock head coach): "It was a good second-division game of two halves. The main difference was that St. Pauli got the goal in the second half. When we had the ball, we tried to go deep very quickly. We broke through really well on a couple of occasions but failed to get our reward. After the break we allowed things to get to us a bit and conceded a corner from a long ball forward, which should never have happened, and we end up losing 1-0, which is extremely hard to take after our first-half performance. The team showed a very good reaction after the Magdeburg game, which gives us encouragement for the next assignment against Karlsruhe."

Photos: FC St. Pauli/Witters