Early goals from Ben Halloran and Tim Kleindienst helped secure another solid win for 1. FC Heidenheim, this time at the expense of SpVgg Greuther Fürth.

Team news

Stefan Ruthenbeck made just one alteration from the 4-0 defeat at VfB Stuttgart, as the newly signed Damjan Djokovic replaced Marcel Franke and Nicolai Rapp went back into centre-half. Frank Schmidt and Heidenheim were forced into several changes as Kevin Kraus and Timo Beermann were both out with injury.

From that 1-1 draw with Eintracht Braunschweig, Ronny Philip and Norman Theuerkauf were their replacements. Denis Thomalla also came in for John Verhoek.

Double blow hits hosts hard

It was a slow start to proceedings in Franconia and fouls dominated the early exchanges between two sides who were keen to not give away ground in the opening minutes.

Then, somewhat out of nowhere, the visitors continued their good form and opened the scoring through Halloran. Unsurprisingly it was Marc Schatterer - as per usual - who made the difference and provided the assist after Kleindienst had won the ball back and played in the veteran. His cross was volleyed home by his Australian team-mate.

Like Bochum the night before, one goal quickly led to another as the Shamrocks failed to recover from going behind. A quick throw was sent back to Philip and the Romanian right-back's delivery hung perfectly in the air for Kleindienst, who rose highest to power a header past the helpless Balazs Megyeri.

It took until the half-hour mark but Fürth finally forced Kevin Müller into action though a Zlatko Tripic header. Unfortunately for the hosts that was as good as it got, and it required a vital intervention from Rapp to prevent Kleindienst from grabbing a second after more good play from Schattnerer on the left.

Drab second half sees Heidenheim comfortably home

What followed in the second half was anything but pretty and looked more like first 10 minutes of the match. Sebastian Heidinger replaced Khaled Narey at the break, but it was a run of four yellow cards in just seven minutes that had set the tone. Alexander Sather was fed up with the needless and bitty fouls.

The Shamrocks threw caution to the wind as Sercan Sararer and Ante Vukusic were both brought on to try and liven up the game but there were very few half chances, let alone clear cut opportunities in the second half. Schnatterer was still the bright spark though, as an audacious free-kick from 30-yards crept narrowly over.

Fürth tried to fashion chances from cross but the majority of those were just too high or hit too hard to find a man in the middle. In the end it was a fully deserved win and three points for the visitors, though the lack of cutting edge against a makeshift defence will worry Ruthenbeck.

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Jonathan Walsh
SoccerSight IFA commentator. VAVEL deputy editor-in-chief/VAVEL Bundesliga editor-in-chief and writer. Email: [email protected]