At the final whistle, alongside the tireless Jenny Hipp, Nadine Böhi put her hand up to face the TV camera. Distraught, she laid things bare when trying to describe how her side had just lost 3-0 in a game they had largely dominated. Basically, she said, it was about taking your chances at one end and not letting them in at the other.

It sounds so simple, but what she got at was the sense of collective responsibility that still exists within this team. No-one was to blame more than anyone else, she said. Together, they would get through it. Judith Steinert, who had given everything against her former club, had embodied the spirit they showed but even  her best ffort cannoned back off the woodwork. 

Sometimes you hit the bar, sometimes the bar hits you, goes the  old phrase. Sometimes, though, it's both. 

But if they hadn’t won since the 5-0 over Leipzig at home back in October this was also a crucial game for their hosts, who started off trying to put Union under pressure immediately, hemming Judith Steinert back towards her own corner flag. Yet Union were fearless, determined to play out from the back, as seen when Nadine Böhi opted to pass short having claimed a deep cross from the right easily, plucking it out of the sky.

But the plan seemed to have its positive consequences because the move she started ended with Lisa Heiseler slashing a shot just over the Hoffenheim bar with her left. They weren’t to go down without a fight, they weren’t to be seen to be short on confidence, and it took an excellent intervention to scoop Anna Weiß’s cut-back clear with Eileen Campbell looming and ready to capitalise.

Union had started superbly, and they had a better chance after seven minutes when Dina Orschmann squared for Antonia Halverkamps, only denied by a last-ditch stop by Jamila Rankin when she seemed certain to score. Sophie Weidauer  - whose  clever run had started the move that led to the previous  chance - was next up, but this  time  Laura Dick, in the Hoffenheim goal, was behind the ball all the way and took it at wait height, cradling the ball.

Dick was constantly involved as the guests dominated play, and she had to be careful when Dina Orschmann’s looping header looked to be dropping just under the bar with 15 minutes gone, and she sprung to tip it over at the last.

But  - as Böhi would later repeat - Ailien Poese had warned that her side needed to start taking their chances, particularly after the disappointment of the draw to HSV in a game they should really have won easily. Dominance was good. Pretty football, even better. But it counts for little when games slip from your grasp like the sand in an hourglass.

And the worst happened when after 19 minutes Hoffenheim took the lead against all the run of play. They attacked down the right through Jill Janssens, who picked out Marie Steiner at the back post. She hit the ball with her studs, sending it downwards, an effort that Samantha Steuerwald did all she could to clear from the line, but Valesca Ampoorter came in, attacking the ball, crashing it back off Steiner who bundled it over the line.

All of Union’s momentum was halted, they looked stunned, and now Hoffenheim looked to seize the game by the scruff of the neck, and Kössler came too close for comfort with her header just five minutes later, if Böhi probably had her top corner covered.

Union roused themselves; Dina Orschmann tackling the dangerous German international, Selina Cerci; Heiseler dancing past Franziska Harsch with a flick of boot in the middle. 

But Cerci should have done better when she created a chance for herself, cutting inside, but putting her shot too close to Böhi. Katja Orschmann then rose to head clear as she readied herself for Kössler’s cross from the right, before her biggest opportunity came when she raced into space in the box, the ball at her toe, but inexplicably chose to square to no-one, when she could have shot, herself.

Böhi then did brilliantly, tipping Steiner’s flicked header over the bar, backpedalling before leaping, her torso arched, Fosbury-Flopping, somehow getting her fingertips to the ball.

But there was little she could do when Kössler shot from 25 yards, expertly, having been given the ball on a platter following a mix-up between Katja Orschmann and Jenny Hipp. Böhi was off her line, but there was nothing she could do.

Judith Steinert reacted first, taking the ball before letting the angriest of shots off from the edge of the box, crashing it onto the bar. Steinert, playing against her former team, then did wonderfully against Kössler, laying down a marker, a point to prove.

Before the half was up, Dina Orschmann got the ball outside of the box, having been set up by some determined work down the right by Campbell, but again her shot flew over the bar. The break came soon after, Union’s striker cursing herself, as it went.

The voices of the Union fans still rolled over the grey skies and pine trees surrounding the stadium, giving the players unbridled support, as the chances they had gave the fans hope. But the patterns of play were indefinable from the first 45 minutes. Union pushed and pressed; Halverkamps almost found Campbell with a slide rule pass; Halverkamps shot over from outside the box.

But just as they had resisted Union’s pressure before and scored, they would do so here again just six minutes into the second half after Gloning bustled into the box, found Janssens, took the ball back before finding Cerci who blasted her shot past Böhi, hard and high into the roof of the net.

As the skies opened, Poese replaced Halverkamps after an hour with Ida Heikkinen. Union continued their fight, but they just couldn’t carve out a goal. Dina Orschmann put her shot straight at Dick following a lovely piece of build-up play by Weiß and Weidauer after an hour. Campbell couldn’t find Heiseler when in space in front of goal a minute later; Steinert nutmegged Gloning on her way towards the box with delightful indignation, but having laid the ball off for Weidauer, again it ended up at the foot of a player in blue.

Dick raced out of her box to tackle Weidauer, riskily, taking the chance afforded her by Hoffenheim’s lead, sliding the ball only to Heikkinen, but she managed to get up quickly enough to parry her shot.

Then, with 20 minutes to go, Poese made three more changes, taking off Weidauer and both Orschmanns for Athanasia Moraitou, Marina Gerogieva and Nele Bauereisen. They were still refusing to let their heads drop, and Heikkinen drew a good save from Dick, sprawling down to her near post shot, but already things seemed doomed.  They just couldn’t create the decisive opportunity, find the final pass. Poese stalked her technical area all in black, her assistant, Sabrina Eckhoff, more vocal, with a flash of white on her trainers, stepped out of it.

Bauereisen, who hadn’t played in a month, found the ball in the box, winning a corner; Heikkinen tricked her way two in the box but ran into a wall, before barging her way down the right wing, certain she’d won the next set-piece, but seeing the decision go against her.

Steuerwald put a final header from Hipps corner over with a minute of the four added on already played.  But by that point it was academic. At the final whistle Steuerwald sat  down, Heisler slumped onto her back, and Steinert limped painfully over to wish her former teammates the best, exhaustion draining her face. 

The Hipp and Böhi put things into context; they know  what they  have to do, but it just didn’t feel like a 3-0 sort of game. It had been another tough day in the top flight.