On a slippery surface, both teams quickly found their feet and it developed into a game marked by aggression and power. But referee Malka from Herten was a no-nonsense match official and he understood how to throttle any breaches of the rules of the game with his unmistakable warnings.
On 18 minutes, Karl Habets can only stop Essen’s Franz Islacker breaking through on goal with a professional foul, which back then did not lead to a red card. The resulting penalty was hit wide of the target by the Essen striker August Gottschalk. Both sides had one or two chances before half-time but they went in to the beak with the score at 0-0. After the restart, Essen were on the front foot and they forced Bayer 04 keeper Fredy Mutz to make several good saves. The Werkself, with the fans behind them, broke free of the Essen stranglehold with courageous counter-attacks. One of these attacks led to the opening goal on 69 minutes: New signing Leo Bering is put through in the box by Horst Schultz and he slots the ball home from 14 metres out to make it 1-0. Until just before the end, all the chances for the Red and Whites were denied by the defence around Peter Röger. But then the Essen player Islacker heads home a cross from his fellow striker Berni Termath and the game ends all square at 1-1.
Ten months later, Rot-Weiss Essen become champions of Germany after a 4-3 victory over FC Kaiserslautern. Franz Islacker, despite only being able to limp across the pitch from the 70th minute due to a knee injury, scored the winner at 4-3 on 85 minutes.
The Werkself had their best season to date in the Oberliga West ending up third and just missing out on the qualifiers for the German Championship matches.
