Thanks to a brilliant final phase, league leaders SKN St. Pölten celebrated an important victory in the promotion race of the 2nd soccer league. The Lower Austrians deservedly won 3:1 (0:0) against First Vienna in the top game of the 22nd round on Karfeitag. Christian Ramsebner (80th), Rio Nitta (81st) and Bernd Gschweidl (94th) made St. Pölten celebrate late. Itamar Noy (49th) had previously given the Viennese the lead.
St. Pölten now leads the league with 45 points. Chaser Blau-Weiss Linz (41) is challenged against Admira on Saturday (2.30 p.m.), GAK (40) has to deal with Vorwarts Steyr at the same time. At the bottom of the table, Young Violets Austria Wien scored important points in the fight for relegation with a 2-1 (2-0) win at Floridsdorfer AC. Leomend Krasniqi scored an own goal for the violets (6th) and Dejan Radonjic (32nd) with a header, for FAC Vice Miljanic (91st) scored the first goal of 2023 after more than 600 minutes without a sense of achievement.
Austria veteran James Holland made his comeback after a long injury break and played one half of the game. With their second win in a row, the “Jungvioletchen” overtook Kapfenberger SV (20) with 21 points, who had to be satisfied with a 1-1 (1-0) win against Amstetten and are now the new bottom team.
In the duel between the second teams from Rapid and Sturm, the Grazer furios kept the upper hand. Thanks to a quick brace from Mohammed Fuseini (13th, 15th) and goals from Milan Toth (81st/penalty) and Sandro Schendl (90th), the Styrians won 4-0 (2-0) and celebrated in the Fight against relegation the first win after three defeats in a row. SV Horn, who is fourth in the table and has no promotion ambitions, was beaten by SV Lafnitz 1:2 (1:2).