What can I say?, thank you, thank you, thank you, I'm flattered
Keep on reading, it can only get better.
During the winter break Pavel Fort guts me by getting himself injured again, picking up his fourth injury since he joined us in July. His hamstring injury keeps repeating on him, and I take the consequence of it by sending him off to rehab. He won’t be back for five months, but it’ll be worth it if I can actually
him next season.
Also, utility man Martin Oslislo and Thomas Gravesen renew their contracts by two and one years respectively while attacking midfielder cum striker
David Odonkor and promising left winger
Josè Luiz Ortiz on 1st January, hopefully adding some oomph to my attacking dynamic.
Blake Newbold is offloaded to Wolverhampton on a free transfer, while I approach Wolves’ sturdy centre back
Waldo Ponce with a view to a summer transfer. The club is pretty much cash-strapped and have little choice other than to accept my fairly generous offer for the Costa Rican.
Before I know it the winter break finishes and we take on
FREIBURG. Having had a brilliant season last season they’re more than a bit bit crÃ*p this year, and a tenth place will not please anyone at the end of the season. We manage to scrape a draw in this one despite not seeing very much of the ball. Calaiò, who else, scores our goal while Freiburg, for all their nice passing and impressive possession rate, are ineffective. We have the biggest chances, but a draw is a fair result at the end of the day. I’m happy to see David Odonkor making his debut with
braveur, assisting Em’s goal.
Freiburg – St. Pauli 1-1 (0-0) Att. 21,760. Shots 71-10 (5-7)
0-1 Calaiò 61, 1-1 Runelio 68. ROT-WEIß EßEN are crap and they know it. Rooted to the foot of the table, they look a dead cert for relegation, and the following week, we wallop them. Calaiò scores again and Thomas Gravesen gets a goal after some fantastic work from Jose Luiz Ortiz. Odonkor, also, plays his heart out and we’re never threatened in this one. With four wins in the last five we’ve hit a rich vein of form at the right time and are crawling our way out of relegation worries.
RW Essen – St. Pauli 0-2 (0-1) Att. 16,642. Shots 7-14 (3-6)
0-1 Calaiò 4, 0-2 Gravesen 56.
A potentially tricky away day at third-placed
SCHALKE 04 is turned into another happy bus ride back to Hamburg by the sheer stupidity of our opponents. After our magic Italian nicks another goal against the run of play in the first half, it all goes balls-up for Schalke, who have two players sent off and their game thrown into disarray. Cosmin Uilacan gets a wonderful and rare goal one minute before time to seal things up in a match where we’re never threatened after our opening goal. Ian Paul McShane is voted MOM, while Ortiz’ introduction in Thomas Gravesen’s place in central midfield gives us more options offensively. The young Bolivian is really strutting his stuff and looks destined to become a regular fixture in the side with time.
Schalke 04 – St. Pauli 0-2 (0-1) Att. 50,489. Shots 8-13 (3-6)
0-1 Calaiò 15, 0-2 Uilacan 89.
Sent-off: Dalmat (60), Emerenko (82), both of Schalke 04.
St. Pauli: 20 7-6-7 28-23 27pts. 8th place 
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