The following Saturday, 8 February, brought the DFB Pokal tie away to the VfB Stuttgart second team. In front of 1,600 supporters at Stuttgart's second team ground, the young VfB team gave Leverkusen a real run for their money. Bayer 04 earned the 0-0 scoreline at half-time through good defensive work and exemplary counter-attacks, which did not lead to goals. Stuttgart opened the scoring on 47 minutes. The Werkself then paid for the high tempo of the first half. The VfB second team doubled the lead to 2-0 on 63 minutes. It was only down to the goalkeeper Hubert Makel that there wasn't a bigger losing margin. The dream of the Round of 16 in the DFB Pokal was over and now it was all about full focus on promotion to Bundesliga Nord 2.
The next league game followed a week later against VfL Köln. On the Friday before the match, coach Manfred Rummel only had six fit players at the final training session and the rest were sidelined mainly due to an outbreak of flu in and around Leverkusen or due to injuries. The team picked itself on Sunday. According to coach Manfred Rummel, one or two of the players had a fever on the pitch. Given those circumstances the coach was happy with a fortunate but in the end deserved 1-0 win thanks to a penalty scored by the sweeper Willi Rehbach on 73 minutes. It was different for the Bayer 04 fans who were shouting out “stop, stop!” after the hour mark thus showing a lack of sensitivity for the situation their Werkself were in and they went home unhappy despite being top of the table.
