Second-half strikes from Sebastian Kerk and Guido Burgstaller were enough to see Nürnberg notch up three points at home to Sandhausen.
Nürnberg and René Weiler were struggling to regain their early season form in the previous weeks and had lost four of their last five games. Their head coach was forced into bringing in Dave Bulthuis for the suspended Jürgen Mössmer, who saw red in the defeat to St. Pauli, while Sebastian Kerk dropped to the bench so that Jakub Sylvestr could start up front.
Alois Schwartz's side were having a mini-revival as the season drew to a close; they'd not lost in their previous four matches and were aiming for a top-half finish. Stefan Kulovits had picked up his tenth booking of the season, against Karlsruhe, and that gave Alexander Bieler a chance to impress in the starting line-up.
It was a dull start to the game, in which neither side created a great deal. It wasn't until the quarter of an hour mark when the first real opportunity came. Sylvester was forced wide and cut back to towards Guido Burgstaller, who had his shot cleared off the line by Florian Hübner.
Both teams were seeing plenty of the ball but none of it was in the right areas and, when they did get into a promising position, the final ball was greatly lacking.
Unfortunately for the visitors Hübner was victim of a mistimed Peniel Mlapa tackle on the half-hour, rolling his ankle rather badly and was replaced a few minutes later by Seyi Olajengbesi.
Nürnberg nearly took the lead on the stroke of half-time, but for Manuel Riemann to deny Sylvester at point-blank range. The sides went into the break level, although Weiler's men would have felt hard done by to not be in front.
Andrew Wooten and Bieler capitalised on a poor Even Hovland clearance, only for Bulthuis to make an excellent last-ditch tackle. It was a rare moment of respite for them, as the home team continued to attack.
They looked even more purposeful going forward but, like the first-half, they made the wrong decisions in dangerous areas. Riemann made saves with increasing regularity but the majority were easy pickings for him.
The Sandhausen stopper then made a brilliant save from Kerk's diving header. The ball fell straight to Niklas Stark but the promising midfielder somehow skewed the ball wide on the rebound.
Danny Blum and Solomon Okoronkwo were set on to make the difference and it was the former who made an immediate impact. Blum danced down the line and sent over a magnificent driven cross towards Sebastian Kerk, who finished from two yards at the second time of asking.
Sandhausen made a late push for an equaliser, though Raphael Schäfer and his back-line were never really stretched and held on for the three points. There was even time to add a second, with Guido Burgstaller's individual run and finish the perfect end to a fine team performance.
That brought Weiler's side into the top half, one point above Sandhausen. Nürnberg will have a derby clash against Ingolstadt to look forward to next Monday, while Sandhausen welcome fellow mid-table team 1. FC Heindeheim on Matchday 31.