FC St. Pauli Punish Pars In Pre-Season Friendly

German Bundesliga. 2 side FC. St. Pauli visited KDM Group East End Park on Friday evening, in the first Pre-Season Friendly of the campaign for Dunfermline Athletic. Despite a valiant display, James McPake`s men would go down by 3 goals to 0 in front of a healthy crowd.

Fans flocked to West Fife to see a side they`d likely never saw in person before – they wouldn`t have been left disappointed considering the technical ability on show from the `Boys in Brown`, who eased to victory in the end.

It took only 10 minutes for the opening goal to arrive, with strong running down the left finding the space to cut the ball back for Johannes Eggestein to knock home into an empty net to put the visitors in front. Despite this being the only goal of the first-half, St Pauli were dominant in possession; Eric Smith seemed to run the midfield for them, while Englishman (and former Bolton player) Dapo Afolayan would give Josh Edwards a torrid time during the opening 45 minutes.

Fabian Hürzeler`s side made 10 changes at the interval, but the relentless nature of their play wouldn`t be deterred. Within 4 minutes of the re-start, new signing Hauke Wahl made an impression on his new supporters by firing home following a corner, leaving Deniz Mehmet with no chance. The 1,000 or so FC. St. Pauli supporters that made the trip over to Scotland were watching a masterclass take place against a fatigued Pars side, who only returned to training a few days prior to the match.

As the game progressed, so did Dunfermline`s attacking threat: without any serious shots on goal to trouble the goalkeeper, Lewis McCann in particular was causing problems for the German sides defence when Athletic found an opportunity to attack.

As they say, at 2-0, the next goal is always crucial and unfortunately for the Pars, it was David Otto that scored to seal the victory with a third goal. After a fantastic switch of play, the cross was flighted in and the unmarked striker nodded the ball home: the scoreline shouldn`t be a dampener for Dunfermline, however. The team were tactically switched on and thwarted many of Kiezkickers` attacks. So early on in Pre-Season, this way just one of numerous positives for McPake to take out of the match: