PEC Zwolle have made an excellent start to 2016 with Ron Jans side hammering 10-man Heerenveen 5-2 on Saturday evening.
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The visitors made the better start to the game and they could have been ahead early on, but Mitchel Te Vrede’s effort was well kept out by Mickey van der Hart.
The home side then grew into the tie and on twelve minutes they had the lead through a rare goal from experienced defender Dirk Marcellis, who found the net with a measured strike. Eight minutes later it was 2-0 as Bram van Polen fired past Erwin Mulder after some poor defending from the away side, which prompted Foppe de Haan to make a double change before the break. Jerry St Juste and Joost van Aken were brought on to shore up the defence in place of Marco van Boomen and Morten Thorsby.
De Haan’s team talk at the break seemed to have its desired effect early in the second period as Te Vrede halved the deficit, before St Juste nearly made it 2-2 soon after.
Any chance of a comeback though was ended by referee Martin van den Kerkhof, who firstly showed John van den Brom a harsh red card before awarding a dubious penalty for a handball by Lucas Bijker. Van Polen beat Mulder from the spot to make it 3-1 before Wout Brama made it 4-1 on 77 minutes.
St Juste reduced the deficit for Heerenveen but Stef Nijland made sure of the win just before the end. PEC Zwolle are now up to sixth, while Heerenveen remain 11th.
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