St Pauli 2 - 0 Hearts: Slick St Pauli make punchless Hearts pay

Published Date: 11 July 2009
By Barry Anderson
VLADIMIR Romanov arrived in Hamburg last night to see Hearts lose to an impressive St Pauli side in the penultimate match of their pre-season tour of Germany.
Alongside the former Chelsea coach Avram Grant and Hearts director Sergejus Fedotovas, Romanov watched a fairly entertaining game at the Millerntorstadion but might have recognised that his team needs more attacking thrust for the season ahead.

The opening goal arrived via the penalty spot on 23 minutes when goalkeeper Marian Kello was judged to have impeded St Pauli's Max Kruse. Florian Bruns converted from 12 yards leaving Kello helpless. Then, five minutes from time, substitute Davidson Dropo-Ampem's cross was headed home by Matthias Lehmann from six yards.

Hearts again looked tidy and well organised throughout but are clearly still searching for greater impetus going forward. David Witteveen, Calum Elliot and Gary Glen all had spells through the middle but were unable to conjure an equaliser and could justifiably complain about the service from midfield.

Csaba Laszlo, the Hearts manager, fielded arguably his strongest available team for this visit to the St Pauli district of Hamburg, where a handful of locals donned Celtic shirts and scarves to betray their links with the Glasgow club.

Of particular interest to travelling Hearts fans was a new central defensive partnership comprising recent signings Dawid Kucharski and Ismael Bouzid. They were stretched inside the opening minute.

Lehmann collected Rouwen Hennings' pass and delivered it across goal, where Timo Schultz struck a first-time effort that clipped Kello's crossbar.

Seconds later, the same player dispatched a vicious drive which Kello did well to hold. Bouzid earned a caution on seven minutes following a crunching tackle on St Pauli's Jan-Philipp Kalla and the opening stages continued at a relentless pace.

On 17 minutes, a David Obua free-kick rebounded to Ruben Palazuelos for a powerful strike which Hain beat away with his fists. Just as Hearts appeared to be gaining a foothold in proceedings, they fell behind. Bruns chipped an intelligent ball over the visiting defence for winger Kruse, who fell under the challenge of the advancing Kello. The resultant penalty was scored low to the keeper's right by Bruns.

Ten minutes from half-time the visitors constructed their most flowing move yet. Lee Wallace and Witteveen combined on the left flank and the Austrian's through ball to Obua brought an acute drive flashing across goal, begging someone in maroon to tap home.

However, Hearts were fortunate not to retire 2-0 down at the interval. Schultz slipped a clever ball through to the ever mobile Hennings and then scampered into the penalty area. The returning cross from the left was inch perfect and Schultz had only to knock the ball beyond Kello, however he was denied by the Slovakian's miraculous one-handed save from point-blank range.

The second period saw the visitors look more purposeful and a clever backheel from Glen on St Pauli's 18-yard line teed up Obua, but his left-footed attempt was fisted away for a corner. Then came another narrow escape when the unmarked Bruns side-footed substitute Deniz Naki's cross a fraction wide of the Hearts goal. Despite his best efforts Michael Stewart was becoming exasperated in midfield and was soon replaced by Adrian Mrowiec, with Jose Goncalves taking over the captaincy.

Glen flicked Arvydas Novikovas' cross goalwards on 78 minutes although substitute goalkeeper Benedikt Pliquett's reactions were sprightly enough to fingertip the ball away.

Naki then fastened on to a through pass and rounded McDonald but there were no takers for his angled cross. The second goal was not long in arriving, however. When Dropo-Ampem curved his cross into the box from the right, Lehmann had little challenge to prevent him nodding home from close range.

Hearts: Kello; Jonsson, Bouzid, Kucharski, Wallace; Suso, Stewart, Palazuelos, Obua; Elliot; Witteveen. Subs: McDonald 56 (for Kello), J Thomson, C Thomson 83 (for Jonsson), Goncalves 46 (for Wallace), Mrowiec 65 (for Stewart), Black 46 (for Palazuelos), Novikovas 65 (for Elliot), McGowan 69 (for Kucharski), Luksa 56 (for Suso), Cinikas, Glen 46 (for Witteveen).

St Pauli: Hain; Lechner, Morena, Eger, Kalla; Lehmann, Daube, Schultz; Bruns, Hennings, Kruse. Subs: Pliquett 46 (for Hain), Gunesch 46 (for Eger), Takyi 46 (for Daube), Thorandt 46 (for Lechner), Boll, Biermann 46 (for Kalla), Naki 46 (for Kruse), Pichinot, Dropo-Ampem (for Schultz).

Referee: Harm Osmers.

Taken from the Scotsman