Hougang United recorded their second Great Eastern Yeo's S.League victory of the season when they beat Courts Young Lions 3-1 at the Jalan Besar Stadium on Monday night.
The troubled U23 side were boosted by the return of foreign duo Sherif El-Masri and Jordan Webb but were let down by a poor defensive showing that saw Hougang score through Fairoz Hasan, Delwinder Singh and Kunihiro Yamashita while Adam Swandi scored for the Young Lions.
Carlos Delgado was the star of the show and his tenth minute free kick was met by a glancing header from Delwinder to open the scoring.
The Argentinian playmaker played another pinpoint cross into the path of Diego Gama whose thumping volley was kept out by an alert Syazwan Buhari.
There was signs of a comeback from Young Lions when Adam's lovely feint saw him rifle in a shot that was parried by Ridhuan Barudin into the path of Amy Recha, but the latter got his feet tangled up at the last minute.
Hougang took advantage of the home team's set-piece weakness to double their lead through Yamashita on 19 minutes, in a move that was similar to their opening goal.
Recha had a golden opportunity to reduce the deficit two minutes later but his cut-back fell to Webb who blasted it high and wide with only the goalkeeper to beat.
Young Lions came up looking a lot more organised in the second period and had a couple of good forays down the flanks but failed to find the breakthrough to trouble Ridhuan in goal.
Hougang refused to take their foot off the pedal and almost scored a third after some good work by Fareez Farhan saw him lay the ball off for Gama, but the Brazilian could only guide his shot into the empty King George's stand.
It was back down the other end on 62 minutes when a lovely through ball found Adam but the former FC Metz forward saw his shot denied by Ridhuan who was quick off his line.
The Young Lions finally found their rhythm in the 71st minute when Webb played Adam in before the latter placed his shot beyond the reach of the stopper to make it 2-1.
Recha almost leveled things up with 12 minutes left on the clock but his strong run ended with a shot that went narrowly over the bar.
There was one final scare for Ridhuan in goal when he charged out and missed the ball to leave substitute Suria Prakash with an empty goal to aim at, only for Yamashita to clear it off the line to save the day.
The visitors sealed all three points when Fairoz broke through the offside trap and rounded Syazwan in the dying seconds of the match to make it 3-1 on the night to give his team their second league win of the season.
Hougang coach Salim Moin was quick to acknowledge that Hougang allowed their opponents back into the game but was pleased at how his players managed to hold out for a win in the end.
"Overall, it was a satisfying performance," said the veteran coach. "We prepared for two game situations. First half, we wanted an early goal and we got two from well-taken set pieces and also a few chances on counters,
"In the second half, we knew they will come (at us) and I told my team to be more compact and more well organised. A few times, we managed to get the ball behind their defence but we didn't have the composure to score."
The Young Lions will have to regroup quickly as they are set to take on defending champions Warriors FC at Woodlands Stadium on Thursday while Hougang entertain Tampines Rovers FC a day later.
Courts Young Lions: Syazwan Buhari (GK)(C), Fadli Kamis, Amirul Adli, Sheikh Abdul Hadi, Farhan Rahmat (Faris Azienudin 73'), M. Anumanthan, Adam Swandi, Afiq Noor (Suria Prakash 65'), Jordan Webb, Sherif El-Masri (Shameer Aziq 65'), Amy Recha
Hougang United: Ridhuan Barudin (GK), Delwinder Singh, Kunihiro Yamashita, Tengku Mushadad, Yuki Uchiyama, Fazli Jaffar, Atsushi Shimono, Carlos Delgado, Nurhilmi Jasni (C) (Taufiq Ghani 90'), Fareez Farhan (Muhaymin Salim 71'), Diego Gama (Fairoz Hasan 63')