A solitary goal from Jakub Sylvestr was enough to condemn his former side to yet another defeat, while it moves Nürnberg to within touching distance of the promotion places.
Tomislav Stipic and his Erzgebirge Aue side were left to rue missed chances, after failing to win against an out-of-shorts Heidenheim side. The draw will have pleased the coach, although the marking for the visitors' equaliser would have annoyed him. However, Stipic remained confident in the same eleven that picked up the point and made no changes to the starting side.
Nürnberg were taking to life under new coach René Weiler very well. The Frankenstadion side had won three of their four games with Weiler in charge, including inflicting a rare defeat on runaway leaders Ingolstadt. There was only one change made to the side that triumphed 1-2 against Aalen at the weekend, with the suspended Dave Bulthuis being replaced by Javier Pinola.
The Argentine was taking a while to get up to speed and almost paid the price. Arvydas Novikovas touched the ball inside him and beat the left-back for pace, though his volley went just wide of the goal. Alessandro Schöpf had his header saved at the opposite end, as both teams were seemingly keen to make an early breakthrough. Even Hovland also went close from a corner soon after, but Stipe Vucur was able to poke the ball out of harm's way.
Young Schöpf almost scored a wonderful solo goal, though his finish was lacking when a pass could have seen Robert Koch have an easier chance. Though, true to form, the hosts responded immediately and Koch made a vital interception on the line to deny Aue the opening goal. The opportunity of the first-half fell to Novikovas, after Patrick Rakovsky miss-kicked a back pass, but the Lithuanian fired his volley just over the open net.
The hosts were making all of the early moves, but it was Nürnberg who would take the lead. Some lovely work on the left from Niclas Füllkrug allowed the forward to weave inside and feed Jakub Sylvestr. The ex-Aue goal-getter flicked the ball to his left-food, before smashing an unstoppable shot past the despairing Martin Männel. It had to be the Czech forward, of course, who had also scored the winner against his former employeers on the opening weekend.
Both sides seemed to tighten up after the goal, as Aue were unable to break the resolute Nürnberg back-four. The troublesome Novikovas had the final chance of the game, but Rakovsky sped across his line to parry his costless-kick to safety. Weiler's side were able to make the ball do the work in the final minutes and survived a late Frank Löning scare, to secure another win with the view to promotion straight back to the Bundesliga.
The three points moves them well into the promotion hunt, sitting just five points from from Karlsruher SC in third. Aue stay in seventeenth, but are now four points from safety after Aalen's draw with Leipzig. Nürnberg face Fürth in the Frankenderby to finish off the year, while Aue travel to Bochum in search of some points to aid their situation.