Heerenveen made it two wins on the bounce as a Mark Uth hat-trick saw them see off Utrecht 3-1 at the Abe Lenstra Stadion.
- By Michael Bell
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After only three minutes the home side were ahead as a quickly taken free kick caught Utrecht off guard and Mark Uth hammered into the bottom corner from close range.
Heerenveen dominated the rest of the first half, but they wasted several good opportunities to move further ahead, with Luciano Slagveer especially wasteful in front of goal, while substitute keeper Jeroen Verhoeven made a great save to deny Kenneth Otigba.
Early in the second half Utrecht had their best chance of the game, but Kristoffer Nordfeldt showed good reflexes to deny their new signing Kristoffer Peterson.
On 54 minutes Heerenveen extended their lead when Uth ran onto a great through ball from Otigba before beating Verhoeven with a calm finish.
Peterson forced Nordfeldt into another good save, before Utrecht gave themselves a glimmer of hope in the 90th minute as captain Willem Janssen fired a low shot into the corner from the left hand side of the box.
However Heerenveen killed off Utrecht’s chances deep into injury time with Uth completing his hat-trick with a cool finish on the counter attack.
With the win Heerenveen climb above Utrecht in the table and into the top four.
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