Title holders Mohun Bagan continued their resurgence, spanking Dempo Sports Club 5-1 in a seventh National Football league match in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Brazilian Jose Ramirez Barreto found the target twice while Lolendra Singh and Nigerian George Ekeh scored a goal each before Dempo's Stanley Colaco scored an own goal in the Salt Lake stadium match.
Uzbek Andreev Sergey reduced the margin for the losers.
The local giants, who put up a lacklustre showing in the initial stages of the tournament, signalled a return to form with a 4-0 drubbing of Indian Bank in their previous match. They now have 18 points from 10 outings.
After playing listless soccer for a major part of the first-half, Bagan went ahead seconds before half-time and bolstered their lead with an early strike in the seond-half to unsettle their opponents.
The Kolkata giants thereafter literally toyed with their opponents and could have won by an even bigger margin but for poor finishing by their strikers, who muffed up a number of rosy chances.
Dempo, who matched their rivals in the first-half, seemed all at sea after the breather.
They remain on 20 points from 10 matches.