Jürgen Kramny's tenure as Arminia Bielefeld began with a win, as Andreas Voglsammer and Manuel Prietl were on target in a 2-1 triumph over 1. FC Heidenheim.
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There was just one change across either side before the game, as Steffen Lang came in for the absent Fabian Klos. Heidenheim and Frank Schmidt remained unchanged.
Level at the break
Kramny was at least getting the fight and hunger than Carsten Rump had found from the side before the international lay-off, and Bielefeld looked much the better side early on. Voglsammer, the lone striker, was looking lively and had a penalty appeal turned down before his shot was saved by Kevin Müller moments later.
Then, just as things were looking up, a moment of real quality opened the scoring. Tim Skarke made a darting run into the Bielefeld area and was fatally not closed down. That allowed the young winger to rifle a shot past the helpless Wolfgang Hesl from 15 yards and kiss the base of the post as he found the bottom right corner with real precision.
From there the visitors looked like the side that had surprised everyone to maintain their promotion push, with Hesl making doing superbly to deny Timo Beermann's header.
Yet there would be a fightback, and as some dogged defending looked to be enough, Heidenheim lost their lead. A strong shot from Florian Hartherz forced Müller into action, though he couldn't hold onto the swerving effort, spilling the ball into Voglsammer's feet. The former FCH man made no mistake and levelled the scores at half time.
Prietl scores bizarre winner
The second half began as the first ended as Bielefeld began to turn the screw on their opponents. It was a tight and tense tussle that went back and forth but the hosts were certainly the side making the running as the game went on, although finding that crucial third goal was proving to be a tough task for both.
It seemed like it would take a moment of magic or madness to open the scoring and, sadly for Arne Feick, it was the latter. After Voglsammer won a flick on that Prietl managed to pick up, the ball pinballed in the area before Feick had the chance to clear. For whatever reason, he opted for a diving header and put it straight into Prietl's path to head in.
Heidenheim went hard at it to try and get back on level terms and after having a penalty claim waved away, John Verhoek probably didn't think his night was going to get any worse. Instead, the Dutch forward had a tap-in block on the line by Marc Schnatterer; it wasn't the visitors day in front of goal, that much was certain.