Fazrul Nawaz starred for Warriors FC on Sunday as they got back to winning ways in the Great Eastern Yeo's S.League with a convincing 4-1 win over Home United at the Yishun Stadium.
The Singapore international, making his return after his move to Malaysian outfit Sabah failed to work out, netted twice in the opening 30 minutes to put the visitors in control of proceedings.
Nicolas Velez and Kevin McCann then weighed in with further goals to effectively put the result of the Uniform Derby beyond doubt, although Home did grab a second-half consolation through Kamel Ramdani.
The result was the perfect response Warriors could have produced following a three-game losing streak in all competition to Maziya, Albirex Niigata (S) and Bengaluru, and they certainly showed they still stand a good chance of retaining the title with the addition of mercurial forward Fazrul.
Just five minutes into his first game back, the 29-year-old opened the scoring after he met Velez's left-wing cross inside the area and coolly slotted a first-time shot past Shahril Jantan.
With Fazrul leading the line and Velez, Miroslav Pejic and Hafiz Rahim pulling the strings just behind, the Warriors attack looked threatening every time they pushed forward.
Right on the half-hour mark, they doubled their tally when Hafiz swung in a dangerous freekick that found Fazrul, who proceeded to climb above Shahril before sending a thumping header into the back of the net.
Eight minutes later, the visitors went further ahead and, this time, Fazrul turned provider as he picked up possession inside the area and unselfishly squared a pass to Velez,who was left with a simple finish to make it 3-0.
Remarkably, Alex Weaver's charges then added a fourth on the stroke of half-time when Pejic held up the ball well down the right before laying it back to McCann, who unleashed a low drive that Shahril got a hand to but was just unable to keep out.
By now, only a miraculous comeback would have been enough for the hosts to get anything out of the game but to their credit, they refused to give up and showed much endeavour in the second half.
And three minutes before the hour mark, they duly pulled one back when Ambroise Begue ran at the heart of the opposition defence before slipping a pass to Ramdani, who made no mistake in lashing his shot past Daniel Ong.
The goal did spark some life into the Protectors and they were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty in the 60th minute when Sirina Camara went down inside the area under Marin Vidosevic's sliding challenge, before Daniel did well to push wide a fierce strike by Yasir Hanapi.
Nonetheless, Home had just left themselves with too much of a mountain to climb, as the Warriors played out the remainder of the contest to claim a memorable victory.
Speaking after the game, Fazrul expressed delight with the manner of his comeback after spending the past few months biding his time on the sidelines.
"Of course, I'm very happy to be back playing my first game after being out for three months," he told ESPN FC. "I prepared well for this game and I think I let out all my frustrations on the field."
"I have to thank the FAS (Football Association of Singapore) for helping me with this move, as well as my old club Warriors for taking me back.
"Now I just want to work hard and help my team get the goals on the field."
Meanwhile, Warriors boss Weaver believes the addition of Fazrul could just be the missing piece of the puzzle as his side look to get their title defence back on track.
"I think we showed what an awesome offence we could potentially have," he said. "Fazrul gives us wonderful options in terms of our flexibility in deploying the likes of Pejic, Velez, Hafiz and [Shi] Jiayi."
"Our display in the first half was probably the best since I've been here, not just because of the goals but also in terms of our off-the-ball movement and link-up play."
Home United: Shahril Jantan (Hyrulnizam Juma'at 46'), Juma'at Jantan, Redzwan Atan, Abdil Qaiyyim, Ang Zhiwei (Fazli Ayob 73'), Song Ui-young, Yasir Hanapi, Sirina Camara, Kamel Ramdani, Imran Sahib (Stanely Ng 46'), Ambroise Begue.
Warriors FC: Daniel Ong, Irwan Shah, Marin Vidosevic (Syaqir Sulaiman 85'), Daniel Bennett, Nur Asyidiq, Kevin McCann, Emmeric Ong, Hafiz Rahim, Nicolas Velez (Shi Jiayi 65'), Miroslav Pejic (Fazli Jaffar 60'), Fazrul Nawaz.