Ricky-Jade Jones’ long-awaited Bundesliga debut was worth it as the striker saved St. Pauli from a 1-1 draw in Cologne.
The 23-year-old moved to Kiezkicker from Peterborough United in June, but an injury prevented him from getting started.
4
In his absence, St. Pauli has had a torrid season despite being unbeaten in their first three Bundesliga games.
Since then, Alexander Blessin’s men have suffered nine consecutive defeats in the top flight following a 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich.
The guests, who were able to celebrate a morale-boosting 2-1 win in the DFB Cup against Borussia Mönchengladbach, fell behind again on Saturday.
But Jones came off the bench and took advantage of a mistake by goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe to score a late equalizer for St. Pauli.
“It’s amazing,” European football expert Andy Brassell exclusively told The Pitch Prospect.com of his reaction to the Englishman’s fairytale debut.
“Header deep into stoppage time, which was St. Pauli’s first and only shot on goal.”
“It is extremely important to be able to build on the cup win against Mönchengladbach with a late goal to keep the series going and keep in touch, because last weekend everyone else won at the bottom.”
“Heidenheim won again. Wolfsburg won at home for the first time since January. Augsburg beat Leverkusen. Hamburg won the northern derby against Werder Bremen, their neighbors. So they desperately needed this point.”
“It meant a lot to them. And Ricky-Jade Jones isn’t the first player they’ve gotten from the lower divisions of English football.”
“Dapo Afolayan was of course part of their promotion team and did really well in their first season last season.”
4
4
“He has fallen out of favor a bit, which is a bit of a shame because I spoke to him last season and he always enjoyed it at the club.”
“He loves the club from a cultural perspective. He loves Hamburg as a city. The fact that he worked, even if he faltered a bit, the fact that Afolayan worked, clearly made them want to go back and explore the lower leagues.”
“Obviously he’s had a couple of pretty good seasons, Ricky-Jade Jones.
“But I think the funny thing about this goal is the stroke of luck that he and St. Pauli really needed after the last few weeks because it was the return of the slippery pitch.”
“Manuel Schreiber, the very good goalkeeper from Cologne, said he wore the longest cleats and still slipped.
“No problem for Ricky-Jade Jones, but it could be an interesting little story about how he scored his first Bundesliga goal in the future if he goes on to achieve greater things.”
4
The stylish striker Jones is moving to St. Pauli
Peterborough may not have been surprised that his former star made headlines in Germany after his free transfer.
Jones had previously spent his entire career at Posh, scoring 41 goals in over 200 games, including ten in the last League One season.
Following his departure, Peterborough chief executive Darragh MacAnthony, a regular TalkSPORT contributor, revealed his former talisman had turned down four different Championship teams to move to the Bundesliga.
He wrote on X: “He [Jones] Four brilliant champion clubs rejected this move, which cost his hometown club a lot of money.
“I’m not going to lie… it hurts and makes me bitter at the moment as the boy has been with us for so many years and I couldn’t have been more supportive of him. But we’re moving on and we’re not looking back.”
“This is football and it can drive you crazy sometimes.”