The result moved Union to 52 points from 28 games, one point above RB Leipzig and seven points behind leaders Bayern Munich.

After a scrappy opening half in the rain, Union took the lead on the stroke of halftime when they won a freekick and Croatian rightback Josip Juranovic curled the ball through a gap in the defensive wall and into the top corner.

But Bochum equalised 10 minutes into the second half when they won a penalty for a foul by Aissa Laidouni and Kevin Stoeger stepped up to fire the spotkick straight down the middle to make it 1-1.

Union’s day went from bad to worse minutes later when Paul Jaeckel received his second yellow card, 11 minutes after his first, to receive his marching orders while Union put the ball in the net two minutes later but it was ruled out by VAR for offside.

With five minutes left, Union had a glorious chance to go 2-1 up when Sheraldo Becker found space on the right and whipped in a cross for Kevin Behrens.

But with the goal at his mercy, the German forward sent his header wide to hand Bochum a precious point as the 15th-placed team put three points between them and the relegation zone.