Sometimes things can just take a while to click. Marie-Louise Eta had spoken of her disappointment at her Union side’s difficult start to a season that had been preceded only by a wave of almost unbridled optimism. But she had been clear all along that there was no reason to panic; emphasising the positives to be taken from a difficult run of games on a weekly basis, stressing that the new automisations, the honing and grooving of new tactics and ideas with a massively rebuilt squad, would take a little time.  

They have now won three on the bounce, scoring 12 goals along the way. Confidence is booming, the high capped by this superb performance in Stuttgart on Sunday afternoon. It's not Eta's style to get carried away, of course, but her statement that "we are very happy" after the final whistle was delivered with a smile a mile wide. 

The first five minutes went without too much in the way of danger, though. This was clearly going to be a slow burner - as Adriana Achcinska knocked Nele Bauereisen off the ball it served a neat summation of the previous endeavours in a game that would improve the longer it went. The last two 2. Liga champions were going to battle here for every ball, for every inch, every blade of sun-kissed grass inside what was once called the Waldau-Stadion. The TV tower soared into the blue sky above. The Union fans, intrepid travellers one and all, out-sung their hosts, despite their numerical disadvantage. 

Lina Hausicke snapped into one challenge on the halfway line on Maximiliane Rall early on, before Nicole Billa picked up the first yellow card of the day, tripping Eileen Campbell before Union’s striker could get into a position to cause too much damage. Judit Pujol – already showing the early signs of developing a thrilling relationship with Naika Reissner up the left-hand side – hit her free kick true, but it bent invitingly only into the arms of Laura Giuliani in the Stuttgart goal.

Amber Tysiak, back after missing out in Magdeburg through injury, crashed into her shoulder charge with Mira Arouna, coming out best, as well as laying down a not inconsiderable marker. If Stuttgart wanted to break the Union defence, they were going to have to fight.

This they did, but Union were to have the first big chance of the game after 20 minutes when Jill Janssens was played in through a lovely piece of centre-forward play by Campbell, controlling the bouncing ball on her chest and laying it off. Though Janssens hit the side netting from the tightest of angles – with Reissner screaming out for a square pass in the middle – Union weren’t to be denied for long.

For Samantha Steuerwald was ready. She has become such an important player for this side over the last year and a bit. The captain in the absence of Lisa Heiseler, she didn’t miss a game last season, even as it seemed that Union were operating under a witch’s curse, and she has been an ever-present so far in this one, too. But it’s not just at the back that she has been flexing her muscles. Last weekend Steuerwald scored a goal of thrilling beauty against Magdeburg, a powerful, yet still looping volley from outside the box. Well, this would match it. A minute after Janssens’ chance, the ball dropped to her as she loitered, 25 yards out. The Union centre-back didn’t so much as pause for thought, hitting the ball in her stride, sending it like a rocket past a helpless Giuliani. 

The keeper was reduced to a bystander, fishing the ball out of her net forlornly in the aftermath, as the Union players thronged their star, and the crowd rubbed their eyes.

Steuerwald hadn’t forgotten the main reason she is here, however, and she was smartly across to the right wing to dismiss Arouna, just as dismissively as Tysiak had been earlier. She rose between two Stuttgart players to head Daphina Redzepi’s dangerous free kick away shortly after that, too, never losing sight of the ball as she turned to position herself, the breath of her opponents on her neck, their shoulders in her chest. 

On the left, Pujols offered a small lesson in the dogged art of full-back play, herself, when she robbed Arouna, before being knocked over twice on her stuttering way up the line, both times somehow retaining the ball, both times somehow managing to keep her attack moving.

The hosts weren’t without their chances. Tysiak came close to flicking the ball in her own net from a deflected header; Billa flashed her drive over having bullied her way into a shooting position. 

But Union continued their attacks, and Janssens thought she should have been given a penalty when she cut across Janina Hechler in the Stuttgart box and was sent flying. Referee, Karoline Wacker, superbly placed, saw things somewhat differently, giving a free kick immediately the other way.

But if that seemed a let-off, that was nothing to the moment, with the break looming, when Giuliani was caught snoozing on the ball by Bauereisen. The keeper was strolling, thoughtlessly taking her sweet time, seemingly unaware of Union’s striker’s threat approaching at speed behind her. She robbed the ball, laid it off for Campbell, and only a brilliant, last-ditch tackle from Hechler denied the opportunity.  The break came shortly afterwards, with just about time left only for Wacker to give Janssens a telling off, with wagging finger and cold eyes, that must have sent a few observers into paroxysms of fear, their schooldays returning in a flood of terrifying memories.

Unchanged, Union came out swinging into the second half, with Campbell shooting over after Schneider was given so much time and space to cross from the right, that it looked like it was a still from a training session. As such, Schneider would start the move that led to Union’s second from that side of the pitch after 51 minutes. She shrugged off Arouna - who has surely had better days -, slipping a fine pass up to Janssens. The Belgian’s cross was perfectly struck into the six-yard box, where Lina Hausicke just had to meet it at head height to beat Giuliani. It was the former Bremen captain’s first goal since signing for the club. 

She was hoisted off the ground by Bauereisen, the first on the scene, in teeming delight, suddenly at the heart of a throng of teammates, a slightly guilty smile on her face.

Union pushed on, surging with confidence. Campbell saw her shot take a deflection into the arms of Giuliani; Reissner overhit her lobbed ball over the top for Campbell.

Leonie Schetter’s introduction halfway through the second half gave the hosts new impetus, and Schneider got away with a horribly sliced clearance over her own goal, if one more than balanced out by her otherwise largely flawless performance. A late slide on Billa as Stuttgart suddenly threatened, two against two, was a superb example. As was her instinctive block from Verena Wieder, having put herself in exactly the right place at exactly the right time

Behind her, Böhi would still need to shine, though, as another substitute, Verena Wieder, was suddenly played through, eyeing up her shot as Union’s keeper came out, staying on her feet, making herself as big as possible, and chesting the shot away as soon as it came. She did even better on 70 minutes, again from Wieder, again staying up as long as possible when it seemed that a goal was a matter of inevitability. 

Eta made her first changes with 20 minutes to play, taking off Reissner and Kamber for Sophie Weidauer and Jella Veit.

Stuttgart were finally making inroads, but Böhi was excelling, and with only eight minutes to play, she sprung to her left to deny Billa, leaving the striker with her hands on her hips, a swear word on her tongue and  a look of sheer frustration playing across her brow.

It was a save almost matched by Giuliani at the other end, when Bauereisen was found in acres of space by Schneider, again having bustled her way up the right flank. Maybe she had even too much time to think, to pick her spot, but the Stuttgart keeper did superbly, diving to her right, to stop her shot, destined for the top corner. 

Janssens wouldn’t make a similar error as teed up for Union’s third goal by the next lesson in supply from Campbell, however. Janssens flew past Hagel, crashing her shot rising all the way into the roof of the net. Three-nil up. Union were having a ball. 

Eta made her next changes soon afterwards, with Judith Steinert and Dina Orschmann replacing Pujols and Campbell, and Orschmann would have a big hand in Union’s fourth, spinning onto Bauereisen’s short pass, and placing it perfectly into the path of Hausicke to sidefoot home from the edge of the box. If Giuliani didn’t look at her finest, beaten at her near post, it was a precise finish, hit through the eye of a needle. 

Böhi’s excellence aside, the home side must have wondered what they needed to do to score. Redzepi caught her shot superbly, but still it flew over. The last kick of the game saw the ball somehow nestle inside the outer netting, when half the stadium had become convinced it had gone in. But by this point Union were long since home and dry. 

They'll head into the international break with a new spring in their step. Eta had been right, of course, all along. Some things just need a little time.