St Pauli grabs vital first home win of the season
St Pauli earned its first home win of the season as Australia star jackson Irvine's side dealt Holstein Kiel a 3-1 defeat in the Bundesliga.
Victory lifted Pauli clear of the relegation places, while leaving Kiel in desperate trouble as the second bottom side in the division, and only three points clear of winless Bochum.
But host St Pauli more than deserved the win. Manolis Saliakas got the ball rolling with a fine drive from range to open the scoring on 25 minutes.
Jann-Fiete Arp had the chance to level matters from the spot on the stroke of half-time, but goalkeeper Nikola Vasiljev, who had fouled Lewis Holtby to concede the penalty, dived to his right to save brilliantly, preserving Pauli's lead into the break.
Morgan Guilavogui doubled the lead 11 minutes after the restart and Johannes Eggestein scored a third on 85 minutes before Kiel was eventually able to grab a consolation a minute into stoppage-time.
St Pauli now has 10 points from 11 games so far, while Kiel has just five.
