A first-half brace by Brazilian forward Edgar Bruno gave Buriram United a 2-1 Thai League 1 victory over Police Tero on Saturday night and put them in a stress-free state ahead of their bigger battle on Tuesday.
Defending champions Buriram entered Boonyajinda Stadium aware that a loss against the home team could spell an end to their domination of the league.
The Thunder Castle were also left with no option but to use rotation, resting some of their key players before defending their 3-2 edge over South Korea's Jeonbuk Hyundai Motors in the away leg of their AFC Champions League last-16 round clash on Tuesday.
The victory means that second-place Bangkok United, who will be at Thung Thalay Luang Stadium tonight to face hosts Sukhothai, cannot overtake Buriram at the end of this weekend's games.
Buriram started the game in a positive manner but had to wait for half an hour to see Edgar make the breakthrough with a header.
The Brazilian struck again five minutes later to double the league leaders' advantage.
Young Myanmar striker Aung Thu delivered again for Police Tero but his 58th-minute goal failed to spark the fightback that was needed to steal the game away from Buriram.
Police's hopes evaporated further when they were reduced to 10 men for the last 20 minutes after Chumpol Buangarm was sent off for committing a foul on Buriram defender Andres Tunez.
Meanwhile, inconsistent Chiang Rai United packed enough punch to hit six past Navy in their 6-3 away win in Sattahip last night.
Navy surprised the big-spending visitors when Vitor Junior got the first goal in the fourth minute, but Chiang Rai responded with six goals Apisorn Poomchart (18th) Victor Cardozo (32nd), Panuwat Failai (own-goal, 36th), Piyaphol Panitchakul (40th), Sivakorn Tietrakul (49th) and Cleiton Silva (69th). Amadou Ouattara and Rodrigo Vergilio added two for the home team late in the lop-sided game.
Also last night, hosts Ratchaburi picked three points, defeating Pattaya United 2-1 and Chonburi wasted a one goal edge to allow visiting Ubon UMT United salvage a 2-2 draw.
Earlier on Friday night, Suphanburi suffered only their second league loss this season when they went down 2-1 to Port.
Romulo Pinto put Suphanburi in lead in the 16th minute but Port found the net twice in the second half with Dragan Boskovic scoring both goals for the visitors.
