Feyenoord flop as AZ march on

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

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. How much worse can it get for Feyenoord? One of the giants of the game, they're now languishing just two points above the drop zone after Sunday's loss at Nijmegen. NEC dominated the game without creating too much by way of chances and Feyenoord could have sneaked one on the break, but Diego Biseswar shot wide when clean through on goal. They had Henk Timmer to thank for keeping them in it and, as the fourth official hoisted the board to indicate three added minutes to play, it looked as if they'd escaped the De Goffert with a point. Then in came a cross from the right and up popped substitute Milano Koenders to head home past a static defence that got caught ball-watching.

Roda won well on Friday night, putting them 16th, but closing on the teams ahead of them. Eric Addo scored in the first half and two more goals in three second half minutes from Andres Oper and Sekou Cissé put them into a comfort zone before Vojtěch Schulmeister got a consolation in the dying minutes. Volendam's point away in Breda doesn't do them much good, but their performance will. Joonas Kolkka continued his rich vein of form in front of goal for NAC with a 25-yarder, but Volendam refused to be cowed and recovered from Bernard Hofstede's missed penalty - he belted it high into the stands - with Rowin van Zaanen's equaliser. It doesn't bring them any closer to the main pack thanks to Roda's win. De Graafschap fall a place after a tubbing from PSV. Ibrahim Afellay continues to be brilliant and scored two of PSV's three, with Ola Toivonen getting the other. PSV remain fifth.

Ajax lost again, at home to Heerenveen, and had another man sent off, Thomas Vermaelen getting his marching orders this week. Heerenveen dominated and Danijel Pranjic's 30-yard free-kick was a majestic way to win any game, beating Maarten Stekelenberg with a curling shot into the top corner. You don't save those. That gave Twente the chance to move into second, but a tiresome 0-0 draw with Utrecht saw those hopes vanish.

AZ, predictably, coasted to a 2-0 win over Sparta to move nine points clear. It might only be nine, but it might as well be ninety, so dominant are the Alkmaar side. Moussa Dembele and Mounir El Hamdaoui got the goals as AZ march on serenely. Groningen kept up their good form with a 1-0 win over Den Haag with Gonzalo Garcia's goal proving enough and Vitesse beat Willem II thanks to goals from Mads Junker and Ricky van Wolfswinkel, easing their relegation worries.