Skibbe fired after five games in

BERLIN- Reuters

(Files) Photo taken on December 22, 2011 in Berlin shows head coach of German First division Football Club Hertha BSC, Michael Skibbe attending a press conference on December 22, 2011 in Berlin. Hertha Berlin on Sunday sacked coach Skibbe after just five games and 41 days in charge in the wake of his team’s 5-0 hammering at VfB Stuttgart in the German league. AFP PHOTO / JOHANNES EISELE

Hertha Berlin have fired coach Michael Skibbe after only five games in charge, all of which his side lost.

The final straw was 5-0 defeat at VfB Stuttgart with four of the goals coming in a disastrous first half on Feb. 11.

Yesterday morning, television pictures showed around 200 fans marching through the snow to the club’s headquarters to protest about results.

“After five defeats in a row and the 5-0 thrashing in Stuttgart, we feel compelled to take this step,” general manager Michael Preetz told a news conference.

Skibbe, 46, had replaced Markus Babbel, the coach who led them back to the Bundesliga last season and was fired in December after a public spat over his contract.

He has left Turkish side Eskişehirspor to take the Hertha job, while the northwestern Anatolian club was on a successful run in the Turkish league.

“I’m deeply disappointment by the performance we have delivered,” Skibbe said after Saturday’s defeat. “The first half was the worst that I have experienced as a coach.

“It was so bad that I can’t find words to describe it.”

Hertha have dropped to 15th in the 18-team Bundesliga and are just two points ahead of Kaiserslautern in the relegation playoff spot. Four of their defeats under Skibbe came in the Bundesliga with one in the German Cup.

Skibbe, who began coaching at the age of 22 after a knee injury cut short his playing career, is the sixth coaching victim of the Bundesliga season.

He follows Babbel, Marcus Sorg (Freiburg), Michael Oenning (Hamburg SV), Holger Stanislawski (1899 Hoffenheim) and Ralf Rangnick, who quit Schalke 04 for health reasons.

It was Skibbe’s second Bundesliga firing in less than a year after he was dismissed by Eintracht Frankfurt last March.