FC St. Pauli

"I'd describe the mood as exhausted but happy," said Kauczinski on launching the press conference. "The win came about thanks to a solid team performance. We don't have a lot of time to prepare for the game against Darmstadt, but we'll do our best to put a fit team out on Sunday. It's always good to go into a game like this on the back of a win."

Buoyed by the successful start to the football year, the Boys in Brown began their recovery work straight after the game and continued the next morning before departing for Hamburg. Several players are carrying slight knocks, however, including Lasse Sobiech, Jeremy Dudziak, Sami Allagui and Cenk Sahin. "These injuries are normal after a game," said Kauczinski. "I hope none of them turns out to be more serious but we won't find out until tomorrow."

The St. Pauli boss is keeping his options open as far as the selection of new signing Dimitrios Diamantakos is concerned. "Dima is a physically strong player with good pace in behind the defence," he said. "He spent time with the Under-23s today along with the players who weren't in the squad yesterday and will train with us tomorrow. I'll have a look how he's moving and whether there's any gelling. It has to make sense, after all."

His team go into the game against the Lilies having taken seven points from their last three games. "We start from scratch again against Darmstadt," the 47-year-old stressed, "but we can go into the game in confident mood. We might be a bit more tired than Darmstadt early on, but we'll run that off. It'll be a different game than the one against Dresden because Darmstadt play a different brand of football. They get the ball forward quickly and look to take opponents out of their game with their passing. That makes different things necessary and we'll prepare for that. We'll highlight Darmstadt's style of play using video footage and show the players what it will come down to."

Photos: Witters