Luis Suarez bagged the opener in just the second minute, and turned provider midway through the second half for Ismail Aissati to notch his first Ajax goal.

Sekou Cisse halved the deficit for the hosts six minutes later, but it was not enough.

The win puts Marco van Basten's side within a point of Steve McClaren's Twente, who are 11 points adrift of runaway leaders AZ Alkmaar.

Roda, meanwhile, lie just one point above the bottom two.

FC Volendam moved off the bottom on goal difference courtesy of a 2-1 win against Feyenoord.

Veteran striker Roy Makaay put the Rotterdam giants in front in the 10th minute but Dominique van Dijk equalised for Volendam just before the hour mark and grabbed the winner with six minutes to go.

The result sees Frans Adelaar's side replaced at the foot of the standings by De Graafschap, who drew 0-0 at Vitesse Arnhem.

Also today, nine-man NAC Breda conceded two late goals to go down 2-0 at Willem II.

The tone for the day was set in the 25th minute when Donny Gorter was dismissed for a foul in the box, though Arjan Swinkels missed the resulting penalty, and 10 men became nine when Tim Gilissen joined him 25 minutes from time for a second bookable offence.

The two-man disadvantage proved too much for NAC to deal with and they finally surrendered to goals from Sergio Zijler (70) and substitute George Mourad (85).