FC St. Pauli

Timo Schultz on…

...the personnel situation: "Jakov Medić got a hefty whack on the nose at Darmstadt and won't be available tomorrow. He underwent a thorough examination yesterday and today and may need surgery. We'll make a final decision today. As for Etienne Amenyido, we'll have to see how he recovers. He had an extended runout over the whole 90 minutes after a lengthy spell on the sidelines."

...changes to the team and the squad: "There'll be a change to the squad because Jakov is out. I'm assuming that everyone who played at Darmstadt will be available tomorrow. We'll look at the lads today and then think about how we put the squad together and whether we add a forward or a defender on the bench."

...the chance to make amends straightaway: "I'm quite happy to be back on the Millerntor pitch on Wednesday night with the opportunity to make amends. I prefer it that way, I don't need to spend the whole week thinking about what went wrong at Darmstadt. We were too sluggish and too slow both mentally and physically in the first half, as everybody saw. The analysis was much shorter than usual because there's less time. We addressed a few basics but didn't go into too much detail tactically. We have to be wide awake and show the necessary sharpness, alertness and readiness from the off to enable us to go flat out straightaway.

...the risk of sliding down the table: "When you lose a game, there's always talk of a slide, but we don't see that risk. We know we have to do better and we know we'll have phases in a season where we go two, three or four games without winning. That's part and parcel of the game and we knew that from the outset. For us, it's important to keep working the same way and to maintain our trust in the lads. We're focusing on the things we can influence and that's our day-to-day work and performances on the pitch."

...opponents SV Sandhausen: "We've had a close look at the Nürnberg game, where Sandhausen played well and were very unlucky to lose at the death. We're preparing for a team who'll make life very difficult for us. They're very solid at the back and will try to hit us on the break. With their physicality and height, they're always a threat from set pieces. They're a hugely experienced and rugged second-division team and in Alois Schwartz they have a coach who knows the league and all the teams inside out. We have to be prepared for a lot of resistance and will need to be on a good day if we're to come up with solutions. Sandhausen will be a tough nut to crack."

Photos: Witters