Hosts Bangkok United kicked off the new Thai League 1 season with a sluggish 2-1 victory over PT Prachuap at Thammasat Stadium on Friday night.
The Angels were the first to score in the top-flight curtain-raiser with Peerapat Notechaiya finding the net in the first-half added time.
PT Prachuap got the equaliser from Vander Luis in the 54th minute but Thitiphan Puangchan secured a winning start for the last season's runners-up 10 minutes from time.
It appeared at times that the Bangkok United players, who are scheduled to play Chinese club Shandong Taishan SC in an AFC Champions League Elite play-off in Jinan on Tuesday, were conserving their energies for the Asian club competition.
Bangkok United coach Totchtawan Sripan admitted that it was a part of the plan to save players for the match in Jinan, but added that lack of fitness on the part of the new signings also contributed to the lacklustre show in the opener.
"It was the first match of the season so there was bound to be some rust," said Totchtawan.
"A lot of changes take place in teams before the start of a new season, but it was good that they [Prachuap] used the expected 5-4-1 formation -- we were ready for that.
"We have also acquired some new foreign players and it was their lack of fitness that affected our plans for the match.
"We had a month-long training in the pre-season but our three foreign players joined the club only recently so we were forced to change our tactic and field the same old squad in the opening game.
"We did not speed up the game because we didn't want to waste energy ahead of the away ACL game."