He was boiling, and that was evident even on the pitch. Shortly before the end, the otherwise level-headed Eric Smith got into a tussle with Elversberg’s Paul Wanner and was shown a yellow card, and St. Pauli’s defense chief also said when he went into the dressing room: This game has left its mark. His verdict was alarming.
“That’s simply not good enough,” said Smith about the overall performance and described it as “very disappointing. We weren’t ready the whole game.” They made “childish mistakes” and therefore deserved to lose the game. “We just weren’t there mentally.”
There was plenty of evidence for this statement during these 90 minutes, something that had never been seen from the Kiezklub this season. You can lose in Magdeburg on a demolished pitch that was changed the day after the game and after a wandering trip from the hotel to the stadium. You can lose at Schalke in front of a euphoric crowd because the opponent had previously gone all-in with all measures. And you can lose at KSC after various controversial referee decisions. But Sunday’s performance left one perplexed.
Eric Smith is hoping for a hello awake experience for St. Pauli
“We have to understand that we have to be at the top. If we go out there and deliver a performance like that, it’s simply not enough,” criticized the Swede, who, like so many of his colleagues, had had a wasted day. “We weren’t aggressive enough against the ball, they could always think about what they wanted to do next with the ball,” he complained.
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Of course, Smith couldn’t change anything. “But I hope that it was a wake-up experience for us,” he said, already looking ahead to the guest appearance at Hannover 96: “It will be an even tougher game.”