Fred Rutten emerged victorious against his former team as Feyenoord defeated fellow European hopefuls Twente 3-1 on Sunday.
Rutten, who is reportedly set to be offered a new contract at Feyenoord, played over 300 times for Twente and has coached them on two separate occasions, but there was no room for sentiment as the home side secured all three points.
It would have been even worse for Twente had Colin Kazim-Richards converted a 37th-minute penalty before Lex Immers headed Feyenoord ahead less than a minute later.
Jens Toornstra scored Feyenoord's second with a close-range volley in the 59th minute to cancel out Orlando Engelaar's equaliser and Jean-Paul Boetius added a third when he turned in Kazim-Richards' low cross two minutes later.
The result ensures Rutten's men moved back up to third, eight points behind second-placed Ajax, while sixth-placed Twente are a further six points adrift.
Struggling Go Ahead Eagles slumped to a fourth successive league defeat at the hands of Willem II, with Giliano Wijnaldum's 78th-minute red card for a second bookable offence added to their woes.
Robert Braber scored the only goal of the game for Jurgen Streppel's side to end their run of three consecutive losses.
Excelsior gave their survival chances a boost, as they won 3-0 at struggling Hercales to end a run of seven without a win and subsequently move four points clear of the bottom three.
The day's only other game saw Heerenveen move back into the UEFA Europa League play-off places with a 2-1 triumph at Utrecht, whom the visitors leapt above in the process.
