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Geylang International got their The New Paper (TNP) League Cup campaign off to an emphatic start on Tuesday night as they thumped four goals past the hapless Singapore Recreation Club (SRC). The semi-professional National Football League (NFL) Division 1 side were outplayed from start to finish by their Great Eastern Yeo's S.League opponents, for whom Hafiz Nor grabbed a first-half hat trick in a 4-0 victory. It took only ten minutes for the Eagles to break the deadlock. Tatsuro Inui weaved past two players on the left before floating in a cross from the byline, which presented Bruno Castanheira with an easy header. Barely a minute later, their second shot of the game reaped the same reward. Latching on to a long ball in the box, Hafiz left goalkeeper Shaiful Nizam sprawled on the ground with a feint before firing home with his left foot. The 26-year-old's second in the 23rd minute was borne out of individual skill. Picking the ball 25 yards out, the winger dropped a shoulder to fool two markers as he moved to the right before cracking a low drive into the opposite corner. The game was as good as over at the stroke of half time when Hafiz Osman played a lovely defence-splitting pass for his namesake, who deftly prodded in his finish from a difficult angle for his third of the night. SRC had two rare shooting opportunities in the box. But first Faliq Sudhir blazed over from eight yards, and then Firman Hanif saw his attempt well blocked. The second half was a tamer affair in terms of scoring. Geylang were let down by both poor final passes and finishing in the attacking third, while SRC still failed to find any way to threaten Yazid Yasin in the opposing goal. Yuki Ichikawa glanced Inui's free kick over from four yards when he might have done better in the only clear opening of the half, as Geylang failed to add to the four-goal winning margin. Head coach Jorg Steinebrunner admitted as much afterwards, saying that the priority was to "preserve some energy" after the break, with an eye on two tougher upcoming fixtures against Hougang United and Brunei DPMM. "We looked at not conceding one, not getting yellow cards as at 4-0 at half time, the game was over," explained the German, who was happy that his team did not switch off in the second half. "Credit to SRC, they were a potential banana skin. So I would say that I'm happy with the first half and the three points. We got what we came for." The 43-year-old was also "very happy" to see Hafiz starting to contribute, with the nippy attacker now having scored four times in his last two matches. "Today the goals he scored were all about attacking the space, using his speed and then making it look simple," said Steinebrunner. "He's been working on his finishing and what he showed today was mature finishing. It gives us more options; we've talked about Jozef [Kaplan] and Bruno [Castanheira] scoring and I also wish Inui would get on the scoresheet more." SRC team manager S. Mogan tried to look at the positives despite the thrashing, as they prepare to face DPMM next. "In the second half, we held out for a 0-0 draw and that was a positive, which I think was good enough for us," he said. "We conceded soft goals, not fantastic goals, due to lapses in defence. I hope that we will not concede too many against DPMM." Geylang International: Yazid Yasin, Yuki Ichikawa, Hafiz Osman, Kento Fukuda, Syed Thaha (Huzaifah Aziz 68'), Nor Azli Yusoff, Mustaqim Manzur (Khairulnizam Jumahat 60'), Tatsuro Inui (Shawal Anuar 84'), Jozef Kaplan (C), Hafiz Nor, Bruno Castanheira Singapore Recreation Club: Shaiful Nizam, Zulkarnian Malik, Shariff Samat, Precious Emuejeraye, Faliq Sudhir (C) (Alfiah Yusoff 88'), Khyruddin Khalid, Samuel Balls, Taufik Jiahuddin (Naufal Hakim 60'), Firman Hanif (Zamri Kamal 87'), Anders Aplin, M. Hemmingway
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