Jackson Irvine set up the opening goal as St Pauli took another giant step towards promotion to the German Bundesliga with a 2-1 home win over Paderborn.
Irvine got forward out of midfield intelligently, before playing an intelligent ball in behind for Marcel Hartel to race on to and convert for 1-0 in the 32nd minute.
Th Socceroo almost scored himself in the 40th minute, swooping on a misdirected pass, before racing towards the edge of the box and firing low, only for the keeper to parry it away.
Connor Metcalfe started and played 83 minutes in the win, with St Pauli on 57 points with seven games to play, ahead of second-placed Holstein Kiel (52) and third-placed Fortuna Dusseldorf (46). The top two automatically go up.
Elsewhere, John Iredale was a 74th minute substitute for 12th-placed Wehen Wiesbaden in their 1-0 home loss to bottom club Osnabruck.
On Easter Monday, Harry Souttar was absent for promotion hopefuls Leicester City’s 3-1 home win over Norwich City. Leicester have slipped to third behind leaders Ipswich and Leeds lately but have a game in hand.
Cameron Burgess put in a full shift and Massimo Luongo started and played an hour as Ipswich stayed top with a 3-2 home win over Southampton.
Sam Silvera was an 84th minute sub and Thomas Glover remained unused as Middlesbrough won 2-0 over Sheffield Wednesday.
On Easter Monday in Italy’s Serie A, Cristian Volpato was a 91st minute substitute for Sassuolo in a 1-1 home draw with Udinese.
In Serie B, Alessandro Circati played a full game as leaders Parma lost 2-0 at home to fifth-placed Catanzaro. Parma remain seven points clear at the top.
Mat Ryan put in a full shift and kept a clean sheet as fourth-placed AZ Alkmaar eased past struggling Vitesse in the Dutch Eredivisie on Sunday. Ryan didn’t have many saves to make.
Ajdin Hrustic started and played 83 minutes as 14th-placed Heracles lost the Twentse derby 1-0 to third-placed Twente on Sunday.
Denis Genreau was back in the Toulouse matchday squad for the first time since January 3 after a hernia injury, remaining unused on the bench for their 3-0 win at Clermont in France’s Ligue 1 on Sunday.
Ryan Strain made his return from a groin injury after being out since November, starting and playing the first half in St Mirren’s 1-1 draw at Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership on Saturday.
Strain had a free-kick hit the woodwork. Keanu Baccus was a 61st minute sub in the same game.
Craig Goodwin got an assist for Al Wehda in their 3-2 home defeat to Al Fateh in the Saudi Pro League. Goodwin started and played 79 minutes.
Full games
Joshua Laws (Grasshoppers), Ryan McGowan (St Johnstone), Tete Yengi (Livingston), Tomi Mrcela (Rudes), Mitchell Langerak (Nagoya Grampus), Alexandar Popovic (Gwangju), Trent Sainsbury (Al Wakrah)
Minutes
Martin Boyle – SB 70, Nectar Triantis – ST 59 (both Hibernian), Kye Rowles – SB 71, Cammy Devlin – SB 71, Nathaniel Atkinson – SB 80 (all Hearts), Mohamed Toure – SB 88 (Paris FC), Ryan Edwards – SB 77 (Amorebieta), Jack Iredale – SB 74 (Bolton), Brad Smith – SB 56 (Houston Dynamo), Mitch Duke – SB 94 (Machida Zelvia)
Unused subs
Anthony Kalik (Hajduk Split), James Holland (Austria Vienna), Ash Maynard-Brewer (Charlton), Nicholas Bilokapic (Peterborough)
Notable absentees
Garang Kuol (FC Volendam), Joe Gauci (Aston Villa), Jordan Bos (Westerlo), Thomas Deng (Albirex Niigata)
