The U17s have claimed a comfortable 5-1 away victory over SC Paderborn. "Apart from several brief spells, it was a convincing team performance on a difficult playing surface," commented coach Karsten Gorges.

Gorges was delighted not only with the successful comeback made by Charles Herrmann, who had been out injured for months, but also by some very decent first appearances of the season by younger age-group players Tim Degener and Diego Dzonga. Almugera Kabar (ill) and Venis Uka (injured) were absent.

Gökdeniz Gürpüz opened the floodgates in the third minute when he netted a direct free-kick, before Cole Campbell, who had been played in beautifully, doubled the advantage in the seventh minute. Kjell Wätjen latched onto a pass from Raul König and upped the lead to 3-0 before the break, with Gürpüz making it 4-0 from range on 52 minutes. Paderborn pulled one back following a moment of defensive carelessness, but Cole Campbell immediately hit back to make it 5-1.

The B-Junior Bundesliga will now break until 26 February. "Then we must get three wins," said Karsten Gorges. Only by doing so will the team keep their chances of qualifying for the Final Round of the German Championship alive.

BVB: Aabro – Numbisie, Meiser, Rahmann, Majhoubi (Plöger, 61) – Wätjen (Adamczyk, 83), Fleck (Degener, 74), Gürpüz, Campbell (Dzonga, 74) – Herrmann (Sadeghi, 61), König

(wiwi)