Favre´s delight at resurgent Hertha

BERLIN (AFP) - Hertha Berlin coach Lucien Favre was a happy man on Sunday after his side picked up their third-straight win by beating Borussia Dortmund and get amongst the Bundesliga's title contenders.

The coach arrived over the summer from Swiss champions FC Zurich and despite finding several first-team players heading for the door, Favre guided his side to the pinnacle of the Bundesliga over the weekend.

Only Bayern Munich's trip to Karlsruhe on Sunday could prevent Hertha holding the top spot they earned on Saturday thanks to their 3-2 win over Dormund.

It was a plucky performance by Berlin having come from 1-0 down to take a 3-1 lead with a first-half equaliser from Marko Pantelic followed by strikes from Lucio and Solomon Okoronkwo to pick up their fourth win of the season.

"It was a superb victory," said Hertha manager Dieter Hoeness after his side's third straight victory in a row.

"We have changed a lot of the team and brought a lot of new players in, now everyone is working for each other."

But Hertha's three wins have only come against Bundesliga strugglers VfL Wolfsburg, Duisburg and Dortmund and while they face second-from-bottom Hansa Rostock on Tuesday night, unbeaten Shalke 04 will be a big test on Friday night.

"It will be tough for us against Rostock and Schalke will also be hard game, there is an air of expectation on us now," said Hoeness.

Part of their recent success has been down to Pantelic's four goals in three games while Favre seems to have created a good team ethic.

"I am very, very happy with the way things are going," said the Swiss coach. "It's great to be top of the table, rather than at the other end.

"But there is still a lot of work ahead of us."

In the weekend's other key results, Werder Bremen beat defending champions VfB Stuttgart 4-1 in a goal bonanza with four goals being scored in the first 15 minutes.

And Schalke maintained their unbeaten record with a 3-0 win over Arminia Bielefeld, who slipped from second to sixth in the table on Saturday night.