Bundesliga newcomer St. Pauli continued its strong away form by beating host Hannover 1-0 Friday thanks to an early goal from Marius Ebbers.
Ebbers netted on a counter attack after just six minutes, heading home a cross from Bastian Oczipka via the right post.
It was St. Pauli's third win on the road in four away games, while the club only has a draw and two losses at home. The promoted side provisionally moved to sixth place with 10 points ahead of the other weekend games. It was only Hannover's second loss of the season, and the club remained in third on 13 points.
"It was a goal of ours to get to second place, but St. Pauli just played really good defense today," Hannover coach Mirko Slomka said.
After the goal, the visitors pulled back defensively and did not allow many chances for Hannover, although Sergio Pinto's free kick from the left side sailed just wide of the far right post in the 45th.
"We didn't give away many balls at all and really made things difficult for our opponents," St. Pauli coach Holger Stanislawski said.
Hannover increased the pressure in the second half, but were reduced to 10 men in the 80th after Karim Haggui was shown a straight red card for his foul against Matthias Lehmann just outside the area.
"We never really found the means offensively to beat them," Hannover captain and United States international Steven Cherundolo said. "They played one counter and that's all they had to do. They just played defense and that was enough."
League leader Mainz plays Saturday at home against Hoffenheim, while second-place Borussia Dortmund welcomes Bayern Munich on Sunday.
