In the battle of two sides who are really struggling to find any kind of form, it was St. Pauli who gathered all three points this afternoon as they defeated Aalen by a score of 3-1 at the Millentor-Stadion. An own goal aided in today's victory sandwiched in between two great strikes that gave Die Freibeuter a much needed victory to climb out of the bottom of the table, at least for now. 

It was all St. Pauli early in the match as they got three scoring chances within the first five minutes. The first one came through Dennis Daube hit a long range shot, but it was saved well by the Aalen goalkeeper, then it was John Verhoek who had a good opportunity but his shot was saved easily by Daniel Bernhardt, and finally Lennart Thy's effort sailed well over the target.

But it was this early effort from the home side that really set the tone for the entire match. Thy had another opportunity in the 14th minute of play but his header slammed off of the post. Aalen finally got a shot away, through Andreas Ludwig, but it wasn't of any concern for Robin Himmelmann.

St. Pauli would take the lead five minutes after the half an hour mark as Verhoek would take a right-footed shot and would trickle into the bottom right corner of the goal. Oliver Barth will be kicking himself all winter long as he gave up an own goal just four minutes after the restart and Aalen were never able to recover from that 2-0 deficit as the chances for the visitors were few and far between and if they managed to get a shot away, it would never really trouble Himmelmann.

The visitors best chance of the evening, other than the goal, came in the 68th minute of play as Gjasula forced the St. Pauli goalkeeper to actually work a little to keep the ball from going into the back of the net. The dagger came in the 81st minute as Thy's shot went across the face of the goal as he took his effort form the right side of the box and fell into the left corner putting the hosts up 3-0 at this point. Aalen would get a goal from Fabio Kaufmann two minutes later, but it was merely a consolation this late in the match.

This was a good victory for the home side and hopefully will be able to kick-start a good second half of the season in order to remain in the 2. Bundesliga as they look to slowly climb their way back up the table. 

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