After their relegation from the top flight Darmstadt had an extremely difficult campaign and they spent literally 80% of it in the bottom two, but thanks to a major revival in spring managed to survive.
The usual max exodus for every relegated side seemed to have not unsettled the Lilies much early in the season and they opened the campaign with 4 wins and a draw in the opening 6 rounds. This quickly made pundits talk about them bouncing back up straight away, but the nightmare begun then.
Darmstadt’s last league win of 2017 was recorded in mid-September, with the Lilies finishing the calendar year on a thirteen-game winless run, which come October saw them collapsing in the bottom two. Despite being a defender in his playing career coach Frings was unable to sort the major issues at the back and he got sacked after round 17, with the old favourite Dirk Schuster taking charge straight away.
Schuster used the winter transfer window well as all four newcomers became regular starters and fitted into the squad well. However, this didn’t bring an immediate effect and four defeats in their opening five games of 2018 looked to have doomed the Lilies.
Come round 24 in late February Darmstadt were nine points adrift from safety, but they never gave up and finishing the season on an eleven-game unbeaten run helped them to save their skins in very dramatic fashion. Despite this positive spring sprint Darmstadt remained in the bottom two right until round 33, but a win over Jahn Regensburg saw the Lilies jumping a point above the last three sides with a game left. Full of confidence after their successes Darmstadt finished the job with a vital 1:0 home win over Erzgebirge in the last round and despite not being very likely for long periods they managed to survive.
