Brunei DPMM got their TNP League Cup campaign back on track on Saturday night as they cruised to a 5-0 victory over Singapore Recreation Club (SRC) at the Jalan Besar Stadium.
Steve Kean's men were upset by Hougang United in their Group A opener earlier in the week. But they found their National Football League (NFL) Division 1 opponents easier to crack.
To their credit, T. Ramoo's charges restricted the defending champions to only one goal in the first half, as a five-man midfield helped stifle DPMM to a certain extent.
But the gulf in quality was apparent after the break. The Wasps stepped up a notch and the scoreline could have been far bigger had the woodwork not denied them four times.
Rafael Ramazotti saw his header hacked off the line in the sixth minute before he had more luck turning provider for the opening goal three minutes later.
After Paulo Sergio was fouled just outside the box, the Brazilian cleverly played a quick free kick short to Maududi Hilmi inside the area. With the SRC defence flat-footed, the winger cracked an unerring drive into the bottom right corner.
The SRC players remonstrated with referee Farhad Mohd for allowing the goal but it stood nevertheless, much to their chagrin.
Maududi then wastefully fired wide from 12 yards before drawing a good save from Zainol Gulam with a fierce 30-yard drive, while Ramazotti twice spurned good openings.
The bar came to SRC's rescue on two occasions, as Azwan Ali and Sergio saw long-range attempts crash back off it. The duo were unfortunate enough to strike the woodwork again in the second period.
SRC had their best opportunity on the stroke of half time, but Wardun Yussof tipped Nurul Islam's well-struck shot behind at full stretch after the winger's slaloming run had taken him to the edge of the box.
With only a one-goal advantage, Kean must have fired up his players in the dressing room and they duly doubled their lead five minutes after the restart.
Picked out by Joseph Gamble's neat pass, Sergio left his marker for dead in the box before slamming the ball into the bottom right corner.
Zainol became the busiest man on the pitch as he had to pull off multiple saves from Gamble, Ramazotti and Boris Raspudic. Gamble also sidefooted horribly over from eight yards.
It became shooting practice for the Bruneians as the half wore on and Ramazotti was more clinical with his next two opportunities.
First, the towering striker easily headed in Sergio's left-wing cross at the far post in the 62nd minute, before clinically finishing off the latter's through pass three minutes later.
The victory was wrapped up in the 84th minute when Brian McLean was allowed to run through unmarked and glance in Rosmin Kamis's corner from close range.
Kean revealed that he had instructed his team to impose themselves further up the pitch in the second half after too producing too many back and square passes in the first.
"After the first goal, we stopped pressing a little bit," he said after the game. "In the second half, we stayed higher and got much more chances. There were a lot more forward passes."
The Scot also said that they will need to be more ruthless against Geylang International in their final game, where victory will send them through to the semifinals.
"We probably could have scored more but that leaves us with no doubt about what we will be working on in training," he said.
"Our conversion rate was quite low. Against Geylang, we won't get as many chances as we did tonight. It will be a tough game, we know they are always organised and tough to break down. But we know what we have to do, and we have to win to progress."
Brunei DPMM: Wardun Yussof, Aminuddin Zakwan, Boris Raspudic, Brian McLean, Sairol Sahari, Maududi Hilmi (Shahrazen Said 77'), Joseph Gamble, Rosmin Kamis (C), Azwan Ali (Najib Tarif 75'), Paulo Sergio, Rafael Ramazotti.
Singapore Recreation Club: Zainol Gulam, Zulkarnain Malik, Shariff Samat, Precious Emuejeraye, Faliq Sudhir, Anthony Soo (C) (Firman Hanif 60'), Prakash Manikam, Anders Aplin, Nurul Islam (Mathieu Harding 86'), Nazirul Islam (Zamri Kamal 77'), Michael Hemmingway.