Magdeburg are not getting anywhere and the situation is becoming ever more worrying as each week goes by and the team once more plays without plan or planning.

There is the saying that a team with ten men plays better than a team with eleven men. Magdeburg have just delivered a prime example of this. For almost thirty minutes away at Lübeck, a newly promoted team, Magdeburg could not find a way through to score a second goal; a goal that would have been just. Instead, they were close to defeat had not Morton Behrens the keeper saved a last minute penalty in injury time.

This time coach Thomas Hoßmang was even more at the receiving end of some stick from supporters as he intercepted the ball from going out at the side line – he stopped it bang on the line – thus interfered with the match. The referee gave a free kick from which Lübeck won a corner kick from which the home side and only seconds later awarded the penalty as the ball. It was just incomprehensible such a stupidity. There is no other word to describe it.

Magdeburg have now played fifteen games from which they have gathered 14 points; a meek 0,933 points per match. True, they are now four games in a row unbeaten, one win, three draws. This is where the positives end. And this has already been said last week. In the last seven games, there has only been one defeat but also, only two wins. The margin for staying up are 45 or 46 points. There are 23 games left. It means, two points per game are a must for the rest of the season in order to stay in this division. There are two games left before Christmas, against Saarbrücken at home and Duisburg away. Neither team look as though they like to gift the Club any points.