It had begun to look like a lost cause. In a season where the Bundesliga’s relegation battle increasingly promises a richness that the title race may lack (with all due respect to Borussia Dortmund’s efforts to stalk Bayern Munich at closer quarters in recent weeks), it has felt like St Pauli were, like fellow minnows Heidenheim, ready to be cut away. The Hamburg club’s best-ever start to a top-flight season, two wins and a draw from their first three games, felt like an age ago. Nine successive defeats will do that to you.
Yet these masters of the unusual and the unexpected had another surprise up their sleeve this weekend; not least, one suspects, to themselves. Stuttgart travelled north on a fine run of form, sitting pretty in a Champions League spot and fresh from a week of qualifying for the DFB Pokal semi-finals, a trophy which they have every hope of retaining. With one league win against largely hopeless Heidenheim since that golden start for their hosts, who are also harbouring an injury list as long as one of Scottie Pippen’s arms (to paraphrase Jay-Z), it looked straightforward for Sebastian Hoeness and his men.
