AZ, without now-departed coach Louis van Gaal, were off colour right from the start and were 3-0 down by the hour mark after goals by Everton, Willie Overtoom and Mark-Jan Fledderus.

Graziano Pelle and Mounir El Hamdaoui pulled goals back for AZ late on but their hopes of an impressive fightback were scuppered by two red cards.

Everton opened the scoring in the first half when he collected Kwame Quansah's ball before breaking free and firing a low, left-footed shot home from 10 yards out.

It was 2-0 just three minutes into the second half.

Countering after an AZ foray forward, Overtoom was quickest to react to a lofted long ball and showed his composure to rifle home.

The second goal seemed to shake any remaining life from AZ and their listlessness was compounded when Fledderus made it 3-0 in the 61st minute.

The former Heerenveen man fired home a brilliant free-kick from 20 yards to send the home support into raptures.

Heracles seemed to then take their eyes off the ball, however, as an AZ side with nothing left to lose began to mount a fightback in the 77th minute.

Pelle came from deep with the ball before working some space in the box and shooting through a crowd of defenders to reduce the arrears.

Less than a minute later AZ scored again. Straight from the re-start the champions launched a raid down the right flank resulting in El Hamdaoui poking home from inside the six-yard box.

An equaliser proved elusive, however, and the visitors' frustration boiled over in the 89th minute when Gill Swerts saw red for an elbow on Maarten Martens.

After a large coming together of players a minute later Pelle was given his marching orders for violent conduct and joined Swerts in getting a head-start in the showers.