Sagan Tosu lost further ground in the J. League title race after a 2-0 defeat to Kashiwa Reysol on Tuesday night left them nine points adrift of leaders Urawa Reds.
Sagan, playing in only their third season in the top flight, were in first place as recently as Aug. 2 only to be thrown into turmoil by the dismissal of manager Yoon Jung-hwan for what the club described as a lack of trust with his players.
Sagan went into the game at Hitachi Stadium having won only two of their six league games since Megumu Yoshida replaced Yoon on Aug. 8, and a second-half double from Reysol striker Masato Kudo continued the Kyushu side's slump and dropped it to fourth in the table.