Sunday afternoon saw third place St. Pauli host ninth place Nürnberg and it was the away side that came out well on top as they brushed aside their hosts.
Going into the game St. Pauli had only lost three times, the latest one came last weekend when they were defeated by strugglers 1860 Munich. Before that defeat St. Pauli were on a four game unbeaten run and they were looking to bounce straight back from defeat. As for Nürnberg they went into the game enjoying a fantastic run of form, six games unbeaten and they've only lost once in their last ten matches.
The early stages
St. Pauli had more possession in the early stages and Sebastian Maier produced the first effort of the game. From a free-kick Maier curled the ball over the wall and headed towards the top corner, unfortunately for the hosts Raphael Schäfer matched the effort with a great save.
Despite not having much of the ball Nürnberg managed to take a surprise lead, Kevin Möhwald played the ball wide to Mišo Brečko and is quality cross picked out Hanno Behrens who headed towards goal and the header struck the knee of Niclas Füllkrug to knock the ball past Robin Himmelmann.
St. Pauli had a penalty appeal turned down a few minutes later, this allowed Nürnberg to counter and once Möhwald picked up the ball there was no stopping him. Picking up the ball in his own half Möhwald burst down the left before coming inside and at the last possible moment Lasse Sobiech slide in and got a vital deflection on Möhwald's shot to direct it just wide.
Visitors double their lead before the break
Nürnberg were the side on top after the goal and they looked more likely to get another than concede. Möhwald was in the thick of the action once more this time he stepped up for a freekick twenty yards out, it was a powerful strike which nicked off the wall and flew just wide of the post.
St. Pauli struggled to respond to going behind and they only meaningful attempt they had was from range, Sobiech shot from a very long way out and Schäfer comfortably saw the shot fly wide of the right post.
The last action of the half saw Nürnberg double their lead. Alessandro Schöpf smashed the ball behind him and it was an excellent ball through to Füllkrug, the young striker comfortably controlled and slotted past Himmelmann for a second time.
Second half is a similar story
Things got even worse for the hosts as just eight minutes into the second half they fell further behind. Tim Leibold played a lovely one-two with Füllkrug as Nürnberg punished St. Pauli with another counter attack. Leibold showed nerves of steel as he calmly took the ball and fired across goal into the far bottom corner.
St. Pauli did push for a way back into the game but chances were hard to come by with Nürnberg defending so well and St. Pauli struggling for ideas. One of the chances for the hosts saw Waldemar Sobota cross from the right to pick out Lennart Thy, sadly for Thy a certain keeper called Schäfer was alert once again to save.
There wasn't much action in the second half as Nürnberg looked to keep their clean sheet and see off St. Pauli. The game was already over but there was no doubt when Nürnberg scored a fourth and hammered in the final nail in the coffin. Nürnberg had a late corner and Himmelmann couldn't claim the cross due to Danny Blum's obstruction and this allowed the ball to drop to Patrick Erras, who poked the ball past Himmelmann.
St. Pauli will be very disappointed with their performance and they have to pick themselves up for their game against Kaiserslautern next weekend, they'll need a win to get back into the top three. Nürnberg will be delighted with their perfect away display and they'll hope to have a similar performance for when they host Paderborn on Friday.