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Heracles Almelo piled the misery on Excelsior with a convincing 3-0 victory over the Eredivisie basement boys at the Polman Stadion.

Ben Rienstra opened the scoring in the 18th minute and Kwame Quansah doubled the hosts' advantage nine minutes later.

Glynor Plet then ended any hopes of an unlikely comeback by the visitors with a third goal four minutes after the interval, although Heracles had to play for most of the second half with 10 men after the 53rd-minute dismissal of Lerin Duarte.

The home team were on the front foot from the start and almost went ahead in the 15th minute, Samuel Armenteros latching on to Willy Overtoom's pass and getting his shot away only to see it blocked by Samuel Scheimann.

The deadlock was broken three minutes later when, from a corner, Marko Vejinovic crossed for Rienstra to head into the top-right corner.

The home fans were celebrating a second goal soon after, with Vejinovic again the provider. The 21-year-old's ball from the left found its way over the line via a light touch off the knee of Quansah.

Armenteros burst through on the half-hour but could only fire his shot over the bar.

The hosts did establish a three-goal cushion soon after the interval, though, and Quansah was again involved. He fed Tim Breukers, who crossed for Plet to tap home a simple goal with his left foot.

Duarte was sent off for a second bookable offence four minutes later.

The visitors took advantage of their extra man to create a couple of chances in the final half-hour, but Tim Vincken was marshalled to safety by Antoine van der Linden and then Roland Alberg's thunderous 25-yard drive crashed against the bar in the last minute.