Stefan Mugosa's brace and a solo special from Clemens Fandrich helped Erzgebirge Aue to comprehensively beat Karlsruhe and take a huge step to avoiding relegation this season.
Bobby Wood was proving to be an early menace for the visiting defence, though he couldn't place his volley on target after getting in behind the Karlsruhe back-line. That was a sign of things to come and part of the reason why they took the lead.
Wood was set free by a wonderful through ball, but was halted by an equally fantastic tackle from Manuel Gulde. The ball fell to Gaetan Krebs, who inexplicably played the ball straight to Stefan Mugosa. The on-loan Kaiserslautern man did his club a huge favour and finished first-time into the bottom corner to send the home fans into rapture.
Karlsruhe were struggling to create anything of note and with Tomislav Stipic cheerleading from the sidelines, Aue were going from strength to strength in the game. They managed to continue to snuff out any potential KSC attacks and limit them to long-range efforts, maintaining their hard-earned one-goal lead.
Aue could have doubled their lead through Oliver Schröder and Rico Benatelli, although both were denied the simplest of goals by Daniel Gordon's exemplary defending.
The hosts continued to dominate and Bobby Wood wasted another good chance in their search for the second killer goal. Those missed looked even more costly when Manuel Torres thundered home an equaliser with twenty minutes left.
However, Aue are persistent if nothing else and Stefan Mugosa epitomised that effort. The forward headed home to bring Aue back in front, having only been behind for four minutes. He'd sent the crowd wild and Stipic had gone onto the pitch to celebrate with him.
The home team were playing the clock down brilliantly, but Clemens Fandrich took matters into his own hands; the Leipzig-loanee went on a mazy run and beat Dirk Orlishausen at the near post to seal the three points.