History Repeating?

Virtually six years ago to the day on April 28, 200, Schalke were in a similar position ahead of their fourth-from-last match as they had a two-point lead over Bayern Munich. Schalke's draw in Bochum at the time saw Bayern draw level on points and a further defeat in Stuttgart eventually led to Schalke losing the championship on the final day of the season.

The only Schalke player who played in that game, Gerald Asamoah, said earlier this week that it remained a painful memory. "We lost the championship in Bochum six years ago."

The Schalke fans must have been able to almost taste the ominous sense of history repeating as goals by Zvjezdan Misimovic and Theofanis Gekas gave relegation-troubled Bochum a come-back victory after Kevin Kuranyi had put Schalke ahead early in the game.

The defeat keeps Schalke on 62 points, two more than Werder Bremen and four more than VfB Stuttgart, although both have a game in hand. Bremen can move ahead of Schalke on Sunday with a victory at Arminia Bielefeld, while Stuttgart have a chance of moving within a point of the leaders if they win at bottom club Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Slomka blames ref for defeat

Schalke coach Mirko Slomka criticised the referee after the game saying that he had failed to give his side two penalties. "It is a pity that a game and possibly even more is decided in such a manner," the usually pragmatic coach said after the game. "We no longer have it in our own hands. I am no longer 100 per cent sure that we will win the championship," he added.

A capacity crowd watching the Ruhr derby on Friday witnessed the league leaders having the best possible start when Germany striker Kuranyi headed them in front in the eighth minute from a freekick played into the area by Christian Pander.

A short while later Asamoah could have put Schalke two goals ahead, but his well-taken shot was brilliantly saved by Czech goalkeeper Jaroslav Drobny.

Bochum fight back rocks title hopefuls

The visitors were made to pay for their missed chances as Bosnian midfielder Misimovic leveled matters in the 33rd minute with a header after two Schalke defenders hindered each other.

Worse was to follow as Bundesliga top scorer Gekas scored his 19th goal of the season four minutes from the break after being found by a cross from Marcel Maltritz.

Schalke pushed forward in the second half in search of an equalizer as coach Slomka brought on forwards Halil Altintop and Soren Larsen, as well as offensive midfielder Levan Kobiashvili.

Kuranyi came close with a header against the upright in the 69th minute and they had a confident penalty appeal turned down a short while later.

The win mean that Bochum move up four places into seventh place on 39 points and have, in all probability, escape relegation.