Brett Holman laid on first-half goals for Adam Maher and Simon Poulsen before Vito Wormgoor's 54th-minute own goal gave the lowly visitors a mountain to climb. Substitute Charlison Benschop wrapped up the scoring for AZ on a night when the top three all won. Second-placed PSV Eindhoven bounced back from a defeat to Feyenoord by beating NAC Breda 1-0 at the Philips Stadion. Dries Mertens netted his 13th league goal of the season in the 37th minute to make it seven wins and one draw from eight home league games so far for PSV, who had Jeremain Lens sent off late on. FC Twente were unconvincing 2-0 winners over NEC Nijmegen to maintain their unbeaten home league record and stay third. Luuk de Jong (57) netted his ninth league goal of the season and Nacer Chadli (73) was also on target for the Enschede side, who were indebted to goalkeeper Nikolay Mihaylov for denying NEC on numerous occasions in the first half. Bas Dost blasted all five goals for Heerenveen as they thrashed lowly Excelsior in Rotterdam. Dost, who took his tally to 14 Eredivisie goals for the season and moved above PSV's Mertens at the top of the scoring charts, helped himself to a first-half hat-trick as Excelsior, who had lost just once in five matches prior to this, saw their mini-revival brought to an end. Heerenveen moved above Ajax and Feyenoord into fourth place, until tomorrow afternoon at least, while Excelsior remain six points adrift of safety.
