Two goals to Kruse either side of Brun's 45th minute penalty was enough to break the 174 days without a win at the Millerntor in a competition match.
Kruse's 17th minute goal cancelled out Aachen's early strike, and Brun's penalty on the stroke of half time gave us the lead. Kruse's second in stoppage time sealed a well deserved win.
We made just one change from our last league game v Eintracht Frankfurt. With Deniz Naki out injured, Bruns returned to the starting 11 on the left wing.
We looked to play a short passing game within the midfield triangle again, although it was a bit scrappy early. We lost cheap balls in the center of the pitch just a little too often.
The passing in and around the final third was a class above though. Players with there backs to goal - Ebbers or Takyi usually - provided great lay-offs to the players running diagonal lines in behind - often Kruse and Bartels and on even rarer occasions Boll and Bruns.
We went down in the 7th minute through some poor scrambling defence. A ball across the box from the byline was blocked and fell to Thorandt who desperately tried to clear it. But his awkwardly hit clearance only managed to fall to Feisthammel who, from six yards out, volleyed home with intent and gave Tschauner no chance.
But in the 17th minute - following two chances in a matter of minutes - we scored our equaliser. An Aachen defender failed to control a long ball on his chest and allowed Kruse to latch onto it and finish neatly when one-on-one.
From there on in it was mainly all St Pauli. A strong tackle in the 27th minute deflected across to Bartels on the right of the area who should have done better with his effort. It was Ebbers who next threatened to put us in the lead. His near post header from a corner sailed over the crossbar in the 40th minute which was, a minute later, followed by a play which led to a shoulder injury which forced him off the pitch.
Takyi displayed some of the one-touch passing around the box with his lay-off to Bruns, who showed immense skill and composure to thread a through ball to Ebbers. The St Pauli front man managed to beat the keeper to the ball and round him, but his shot towards the open goal was blocked by a defender. It was during this shot that he tumbled towards the ground and hurt his shoulder. He was replaced by Saglik and the same formation was maintained.
The injury didn't stop our late half siege and when Bruns smartly won a penalty, taking the ball away from a defender and going down when his ankles were clipped, he always looked confident as he stepped up to take it. He it it down the middle - with a swerve to the right - to give us a 2-1 lead going into the break. Only a couple of times Tschauner was forced to save in the half.
In the second half we looked to maintain a more solid structure and stay defensively strong. It worked well, with just a far post header drifting over their only chance. The match stayed a lot like this until Aachen decided to push higher up and try get themselves a winner.
This opened up space at the back and we exploited this area on the counter three or four times. Most of the time it came to nothing - like when Takyi broke and squared it to Schachten who's shot was deflected - but the attack was still there and it was enough to make sure Aachen, while still attacking, were at least still a little cautious at the back.
But even if that was the case, they didn't tighten the screws and paid for it in the 91st when Kruse scored his second. Kruse broke and put a ball through to Saglik who, after taking a few touches, put it back across to Kruse. The midfielder was through and slid the ball past the keeper with ease, wheeling away with delight as he the three points were secured.
It wasn't a perfect performance, but the hunger and passion was there, and it was a good win. Though it wasn't without problems. Apart from Ebbers injury, Kalla also limped off in the 65th minute, but I don't think it's serious. Lets hope so at least.
Our next game is away to Bochum on Friday night at 8:30pm (4:30am AEST)
St Pauli 3 (Kruse 17' 91', Bruns 43')
Alemannia Aachen 1 (Feisthammel 7')
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