Even though neither side found the back of the net, Paderborn and St. Pauli played out a thoroughly entertaining draw.
Kruse to the rescue
Lukas Kruse was busy from the first few minutes and made a few top class stops early on. Sebastian Maier called the Paderborn stopper into action with an awkward attempt before he did brilliantly to deny both Philipp Zereis and Marc Rzatkowski in quick succession.
The hosts were dealt a blow when Dominik Wydra had to be brought on for Oliver Kirch and soon had to thank Kruse for another stellar save. He kept out another effort from Maier and Lennart Thy shot over after a fine solo run moments before, as Markus Gellhaus' side lacked any real ability to attack or defend with confidence.
St. Pauli were dominating across the pitch and a substantial lead would not have been an undeserving score-line at the break, but only the killer instinct was preventing them from taking an advantage into half-time. Paderborn, however, were happy to hear Harm Osmers' whistle.
Paderborn respond but can't find the net
The break did the hosts the world of good and they immediately looked better after the break. Idir Ouali and Marc Vucinovic had livened up, as had the rest of their midfield. When Marvin Bakalorz played in Nick Proschwitz just after the break it looked like they'd even open the scoring, although Robin Himmelmann came to his side's rescue.
From then on it was absolutely anyone's game and the reinforcements of Mahir Saglik and Srdjan Lakic looked to have swung the game in Paderborn's favour. Saglik went inches away from finding the far corner but drew his shot into the side-netting. However, Lakic would not have the ideal ending to the game and was sent-off for a foul on Zereis in the final minutes.
Lasse Sobiech had the game's final chance but his free-kick flew wide. St. Pauli couldn't take advantage of VfL Bochum's slip up and could count themselves unfortunate that they didn't come away with the three points. Paderborn, on the other hand, could be brought of their defensive efforts in the end.