Veton Berisha's early goal was enough to earn another win for SpVgg Greuther Fürth, as they edged out VfB Stuttgart in a hard-fought 1-0.
Team news
Following their late comeback to draw with SV Sandhausen, Janos Radoki made three changes to try and push his side onto three points this time round. Nicolai Rapp, Dominik Schad and Sercan Sararer all dropped out as Marcel Franke, Khaled Narey and Serdar Dursun returned to the starting line-up.
As for Hannes Wolf and Stuttgart, they also failed to win last time out after drawing 1-1 with VfL Bochum. In a bid to turn around a small blip in form, they brought Marcel Kaminski, Matthias Zimmermann and Daniel Ginczek into the side for Anto Grgic, Takuma Asano and Julian Green.
Berisha smashes home
After the disappointment of another draw last weekend, Stuttgart started off on the front foot in search of an early opener. That almost came through Carlos Mané but Balasz Megyeri was up to the task and made a fine save to deny the Portuguese when one-on-one.
The Swabians seemed in control of the early exchanges but were shocked to go behind to a speculative strike from Berisha. The ball was fired into Serdar Dursun's feet but nicked away but Kaminski. It rolled back towards the Norwegian, who didn't need a second invitation to rile the ball into the bottom corner and past Mitchell Langerak.
Both teams traded chances after that, with two very strong efforts from Ádám Pintér flying narrowly past Langerk's right-hand upright. At the other end, Carlos Mané again found himself with an opportunity to fire at goal but his header was comfortably off target.
The Shamrocks were handed a stroke of luck just before the break, however, as a clearing header from Franke was nodded back into the mix. Simon Terodde was lurking at the back post and calmly tapped in at the back post. Unfortunately for the forward, his effort was wrongly ruled out for offside.
More good work sees Shamrocks home
Seeing that his side weren't making much headway going forward, Wolf made two changes at the break. Grgic and Josip Brekalo came on for Jean Zimmer and Ginczek but that did not change the pattern of play early on. Dursun was put through on goal with a cute slide rule pass but the forward squirmed his shot just wide of the bottom corner.
The Fürth attacks continued, and they should have been well out of sight by the hour mark. It took a superb tackle from Kaminski to halt Dursun's burst on goal, and the resulting play saw Berisha fail to connect properly with a free header. The pocket rocket forward then had a goal, this time correctly, disallowed for offside.
Stuttgart finally tested Megyeri with their first meaningful attempt since the third minute. It took a simply stunning one-handed reaction save from the Hungarian to turn Christian Gentner's blast from 10 yards over the crossbar. But the Shamrocks marched up the other end, and a strong block kept Narey from cutting the ball back to Berisha.
The final stages were tight and tense but Stuttgart failed to find a way through and now face an anxious wait until Monday night to see if they'll retain top spot heading into the international break. Radoki's incredible turnaround continued with the win, with only Union Berlin and their opponents having won more points since he took over.