Buriram United started the defence of their Thai League 1 title in an ominous fashion on Saturday night when they thrashed promoted Nongbua Pitchaya 4-0 in their first game of the season.
The Thunder Castle were put on course for the big victory in the away northeastern derby by Malaysian defender Dion Cools in the 10th minute.
After being kept quiet by the hosts for a lengthy stretch, Buriram added one more to their tally soon after the hour mark through Lucas Crispim.
Nongbua were reduced to 10 men on the pitch in the 41st when their goalkeeper Kittikun Jamsuwan was red-carded for handling the ball outside the penalty area. The disparity in numbers took its toll and Guilherme Bissoli made it 3-0 after 76 minutes before Supachai Chaided completed the rout seven minutes from time.
Buriram's new coach Osmar Loss Vieira said: "The first match of the season is always a difficult one, so starting off with a victory is something to celebrate.
"I think we have a perfect team and we are ready to fight for the top prize in every tournament that we will be taking part in."
Also on Saturday night, hosts Sukhothai suffered a 3-1 defeat at the hands BG Pathum United.
Sukhothai took the lead in the 20th minute through John Baggio only to see Pathum's Melvyn Lorenzen (28), Jaroensak Wonggorn (40) and Chanathip Songkrasin (84) score and take the game away from them.
Promoted side Rayong also suffered a similar fate, losing to Port 3-1 at home after taking first-half lead through a David Barroso goal in the 39th minute.
Port's goals came in the dying moments with a Diego Silva own goal giving them the equaliser in the 85th minute. Teerasal Poeiphimai then scored a double to steal three points for Port.