Nurnberg achieved deserved direct promotion after their young and talented squad showed great attacking efficiency all season, which made the Bavarians very hard to deny from scoring and also really exciting to watch.
Five wins in the opening eight rounds quickly established Nurnberg in the top six. With the tall Swedish centre forward Ishak netting 12 goals in the opening 18 games, plus Behrens having his best ever scoring season with 12 goals Nurnberg were the most effective team in the Second Tier going forward and 18 times they scored two goals or more.
The main push towards promotion was achieved on the two sides of the winter break when the Bavarians enjoyed eleven-game unbeaten run stretching from round 13 to 24. Kollner’s men continued to have some difficulties in defence all season, but the exciting young talents that were regularly playing from the off and the positive forward approach usually were enough to compensate for that.
Captain Behrens was particularly impressive as despite his deep midfield role he proved devastating when joining the attacks and all season he was scoring with every second shot he was attempting.
Nurnberg had some difficulties in March when they went through a five-game winless run, with these matches missed by striker Ishak through injury. However, come the business end to the season Ishak was back fit and four wins between rounds 29 and 33 confirmed the direct promotion. Nurnberg were literally seconds away from finishing in first place too, they needed only a home draw in the last round vs. Fortuna, but a goal was conceded deep in stoppage time and the game was lost 2:3. Despite that the return to the top flight is the main price.
