Ajax lose ground and Stevens quits

Heerenveen 2-0 Roda
PSV 2-2 NAC
AZ 2-0 De Graafschap
Feyenoord 1-1 Willem II
Vitesse 0-0 NEC
Volendam 0-1 Den Haag
Utrecht 3-3 Sparta
Groningen 1-0 Ajax
Heracles 1-2 Twente

With so many of the traditional powerhouses of Dutch football struggling, it was inevitable that the managerial merry-go-round would clank into action at some point. The only surprise is that it's taken up until this week to do so. PSV have fallen nine points behind the Champions League placings as they drew at home to Breda and Huub Stevens quit the club, just six months after joining. His final act was seeing Carlos Salcido both put the Eindhoven megalith in front and then equalising for NAC just after the break as he put through his own net. Veteran Finn Jonas Kolkka then put the Breda side in front before that man Ibrahim Afellay rescued a point. Not enough, it seems, for Stevens.

Ajax also slipped up away at Groningen. The northerners had started the season well, but had fallen away. Now they look back on track with this win which came courtesy of Danny Holla's cracking strike just before the break. Somewhat against the run of play, he profited from some good build up work to fire past Maarten Stekelenberg from 20 yards. Luis Suarez was good again for the Amsterdammers, but that final ball proved elusive and Groningen hung on for the points, a task made easier by Jan Vertoghen's late dismissal.

Ajax's woes became Twente's delight as their derby win over Heracles put them just a point behind Marco van Basten's side. Heracles had been beaten just once at the Polman all season before this weekend, but Steve McClaren's men despatched them with relative ease. Kenneth Perez is a man in form and he scored one and created another for Marko Arnautovic as the Twente built a 2-0 lead. Ricky van den Bergh was brightest for the home side and he pegged one back - too little too late for the Almelo side.

AZ are still laughing out front. Everyone else stumbles, but they just keep rolling along, this week with a 2-0 win over struggling De Graafschap as they stretch the lead at the top of the table to six points. It took eleven minutes for Mounir el Hamdaoui to cross for Brazilian striker Ari to head the first and the goalscorer was involved twice in setting up the second for Sébastien Pocognoli. De Graafschap had chances, even getting the ball in the net shortly after going behind, but on-loan Chelsea striker Ben Sahar was offside. Feyenoord left it late to snatch a point at home to Willem II when Andwélé Slory's shanked shot somehow crept past Maikel Aerts to level Jens Janse's second half goal for the visitors. At least the Rotterdammers have identified their new manager: Mario Been will leave NEC to take over in the summer. That's a bit of a surprise given the relative strengths of the two sides at the moment, but NEC fought out a tedious 0-0 away at Vitesse. Indeed, NEC only really had one effort on goal, that coming 17 minutes from time, but their rearguard kept Vitesse - hardly the most frightening attacking machine in the Eredivisie - at bay.

The lack of excitement there was more than made up for in Utrecht where Sparta battled to a 3-3 draw. Five of those goals came in a busy first half. A terrible defensive error from Utrecht's Michael Silberbauer allowed Kevin Strootman to open the scoring, but Silberbauer atoned with the equaliser before Cedric van der Gun blazed in a long-range effort to put Utrecht ahead. Teenage prodigy Joey Godee levelled it back up, but only for a minute as Loic Loval's tame shot somehow sneaked under Cor Varkevisser and it. The second half was rather more sedate and on 68 minutes, Rydell Popeon fired in Joshua John's cross from the edge of the box the square it up once more. Heerenveen took advantage of PSV's slip-up to tighten their grip on fourth place with a 2-0 home win - their fourth win in a row - over Roda. Roy Beerens got the first and Danijel Pranjic's second half penalty saw them ease to a win over the men from Kerkrade. Finally, Den Haag eased the pressure on themselves while leaving Volendam well and truly in the mire thanks to Danny Buijs' (Oh Danny Buijs, the pipes, the pipes are calling...) late strike in a less-than-enthralling encounter.