Nurnberg remained second from bottom in the Bundesliga standings following yesterday's hammering at home to Hamburg, but Schafer insists Oenning is the right man to get the club out of danger.

"Of course we have got to be shocked about our last three games," he said.

"I don't think we should panic. We will not copy what Stuttgart did.

"We stand by our coach Michael Oenning. He has a contract until 2011 here and we want to honour that."

There were many calls for Oenning to be sacked as Nurnberg lost for the fifth time at their Franken Stadion home yesterday, but Schafer called on everybody to pull together rather than criticise.

"The team was absolutely disappointed after the game," he said. "We are in a very difficult moment, but we have got to get through this as a team and as a club.

"The important thing is that we carry on believing in ourselves.

"We are not in a hopeless league position."

Hamburg were celebrating their first Bundesliga win in eight attempts, on the other hand, leaving their coach Bruno Labbadia delighted.

But he showed compassion for his opposite number and criticised their fans for losing patience so quickly.

"It is obviously a great feeling to have won again at last and we deserved the three points," he said.

"Nurnberg have a young team and they need to be given support right to the very end."