Max Kruse chalked up a first half assist and a goal of his own with six minutes remaining to secure a brilliant three points in a tough away trip to Bochum to put us in first place for now.
With Marius Ebbers and Jan-Philipp Kalla out because of injury, we had two changes. Mahir Saglik and Carsten Rothenbach came in to start their first league games of the season. Sebastian Schachten moved to the left to allow Rothenbach to play on the right, and Saglik started up front.
The conditions were torrential at kick off and it was reflected in our play in the opening 10 minutes. Bochum started with a bang and had a long shot go not far wide in the opening minute. Six minutes later and they capitalised on their high-tempo play which forced us into too many cheap turnovers.
In the wet conditions they pressed us and forced errors, and continued the high tempo when on the attack. A brilliant move ended with reverse first-touch pass that split Markus Thorandt and Lasse Sobiech - who only had about a metre in between them as it was.
Dabrowski knew exactly what was happening and ran onto it and slotted home. You can't blame Philip Tschauner for the goal as he did everything he could; charged at the player, stayed on his feet and went the right way. The shot was just simply unstoppable from that range.
I'm also unsure if you can blame Thorandt or Sobiech. Maybe Sobiech was too flat-footed and Thorandt was caught ball watching a bit, but in reality the move was executed perfectly and they deserved the goal.
We seemed to kick into gear not long after. They had another drive from outside the area go wide on 11 minutes and that was about it from Bochum in the opening half - apart from an attempted cross which almost floated into the far top corner until Tschauner palmed it over.
Our passing improved as the half progressed and, with the loud and big in numbers away support behind us, we began to take ascendancy. Florian Bruns and Fin Bartels began to get involved more and, with Kruse and Charles Takyi taking charge from the midfield, the signs were encouraging.
The problem seemed to be a lack of ideas in the final third, which in turn lead to the loss of possession. But, in the 32nd minute, a mint counter attack which developed from the cross-turned-shot that Tschauner saved led to the first goal.
The corner from the save led to us gaining possession. The counter attack swept from the left to the right where Kruse, when close to the byline, whipped in a cross to the far post. Bartels controlled the ball, cut inside and finished into the far bottom corner to equalise.
We had two chances to take the lead on the stroke of half time when Sobiech had two headers well saved. He was unlucky not to find the net and in truth it would have been a just reward for his great performances in these first four matches.
Bochum fought back and began to get into the game more in the second half. The referee was fairly strict and blew for a lot of fouls which probably worked in our favour. The game couldn't flow and became quite rigid. It was set to finish at a 1-1 draw which would have been a better result for us than for Bochum and a could have been considered a good away day.
We did have a few chances in the second half and, apart from the eventual goal, they all stemmed from Bartels down the right. He did well to beat his man on a few occasions, and his passes back across the area always seemed to end in the shot across the face of goal being well saved.
Rouwen Hennings came on for Takyi on the hour mark and made a strong impact. He made a brilliant sliding block to end a dangerous Bochum sweeping move, and seemed to be involved in every attack. He started in the midfield until Fabio Morena returned from injury, coming on for Saglik. Morena dropped into the midfield and Hennings played as the front man.
Saglik's first league start wasn't bad. He played the role Ebbers does well - a link between the midfield triangle and the wide men. He had a strong header directed low and hard stopped thanks to quick reactions and another shot later in the match which forced a good save. He wasn't heavily involved but I thought he did what was required of him.
We took the lead in the 84th minute after some great work from Kruse. It was perhaps against the run of play a bit, but the momentum wasn't considerably on one side or another. Kruse made a run down the left of the area, cut back inside and slid the ball through the keepers legs to put us in front of the first time that night.
The St Pauli fans managed to somehow raise the volume another notch but it was nervous times in those closing minutes. Schachten received a second yellow for clipping a Bochum player making a dangerous run in the 86th minute and it put us in a difficult position.
Fortunately the defence remained strong and constantly cleared deep crosses and free-kicks into the area. We managed to see out the game and Andre Schubert erupted when the whistle was blew. He was riding every kick in this match and was obviously well pleased with the three points in our toughest game so far.
We are top of league! (for another few hours, at least.)
VfL Bochum 1 (Dabrowski 7')
St Pauli 2 (Bartels 32', Kruse 84')
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