Defending champions Albirex Niigata (S) maintained their perfect start to the 2017 S.League season on Thursday night with a 2-0 win over Brunei DPMM at the Jurong East Stadium.
The White Swans were made to dig deep for their third successive victory, with both goals coming in the last 16 minutes through Ryuya Motoda and Ryota Nakai.
DPMM were slightly on top in the early exchanges and could have opened the scoring on the half-hour mark.
Former Ireland Under-21 forward Billy Mehmet connected well with captain Rosmin Kamis' deep cross into the box, but his header came off the left-hand post and the back of Albirex goalkeeper Yosuke Nozawa before bouncing to safety.
Albirex gradually settled in and spurned two great opportunities to go ahead just before half time.
First it was Kento Nagasaki who crashed his shot oer from just inside the box after receiving a lay-off from Nakai.
Then, centre-back Takuya Akiyama proceeded to fire over from six yards out after Yuuki Yamanouchi's cross-shot came off the crossbar.
They carried on from there they left off after the break, with Yasutaka Yanagi's header tipped over the bar by DPMM custodian Wardun Yussof, before Akiyama nodded Nagasaki's corner onto the crossbar.
Albirex coach Kazuaki Yoshinaga made a couple of changes to the lineup after the hour mark, but it was DPMM who went agonisingly close to the opener on 71 minutes with Azwan Saleh lashing just wide from the edge of the box.
The deadlock was finally broken in the 74th minute, with substitute Motoda making an impact just three minutes after coming on.
The latter made a late run into the box to meet Naofumi Tanaka's teasing cross, with Wardun getting a hand to his stooping header but failed to keep out.
The White Swans would seal their victory three minutes from time, with Nakai holding off his marker via a long ball before producing an unerring finish into the bottom right corner.
The result meant that the reigning champions stayed top with nine points from three matches, but Yoshinaga believes there is still much room for improvement for his side.
"In the first half, we did not attack well. So we made some adjustments in the second half to attack more incisively," he said at the post-match news conference.
"Against a team that plays with three centre-backs, we have to display flexibility and adapt to a change of tactics.
"The players had less than 60 training sessions in 60 days, so they're still trying to gel. The results have been good so far, but we will definitely get better as we train more."
Meanwhile DPMM coach Steve Kean did not hold back in the criticism of his team, with the Wasps starting the season with two losses in two.
"The goals we gave away were really poor," said the former Blackburn Rovers man. "For the first, it was a simple ball across the six-yard box; we were ball-watching and their player did not need to do too much.
"For the second, I said to Wardun his starting position needs to be higher and he needs to make the attackers worry a bit. We cannot defend like that, conceding five goals in two games and the manner in which we did so.
"We have 22 days before the next game. For sure, we'll be doing a lot of defending in training. At the moment, things are just not falling for us."
Albirex Niigata (S): Yosuke Nozawa (GK), Tomoki Menda, Yasutaka Yanagi, Takuya Akiyama, Naofumi Tanaka, Hiroyoshi Kamata (Ryuya Motoda 71'), Shuto Inaba (C), Yuuki Yamanouchi, Kento Nagasaki, Ryota Nakai (Rui Kumada 90'), Tsubasa Sano (Shoichiro Sakamoto 62')
Brunei DPMM: Wardun Yussof (GK), Rosmin Kamis (C), Yura Indera Putera (Shahrazen Said 88'), Reduan Petara, Maududi Hilmi, Hendra Azam, Azwan Saleh, Najib Tarif, Azwan Ali (Adi Said 88') Rafael Ramazotti, Billy Mehmet