Ten-man Heerenveen found themselves on the receiving end of a 4-1 thrashing at the hands of Ajax in this afternoon's Eredivisie clash at the Abe Lenstra Stadion.

The visitors opened the scoring after just seven minutes when Arkadiusz Milik hammered a long-range effort into the Heerenveen net.

Just five minutes later, the Amsterdam giants doubled their lead as Daley Sinkgraven's corner was nodded home by Davy Klaassen.

The hosts halved their deficit midway through the first half when Joel Veltman bundled the ball into his own net from Mark Uth's shot.

Three minutes later, Veltman made amends when he restored his side's two-goal advantage, heading home a free kick lashed into the box by Sinkgraven.

Milik then killed off the game in the 67th minute by converting Anwar El-Ghazi's cross for his 11th league goal of the season.

Dwight Lodeweges's charges found themselves further in trouble when Pele van Aanholt was shown a straight red for hacking down El-Ghazi in the 78th minute.

With the game over as a contest, Ajax were able to see out the latter stages and secure three points which keep them in pursuit of league leaders PSV Eindhoven.