Singapore kept up their penchant for silencing huge partisan crowds as they stunned over 100,000 Indonesian fans at the Senayan Stadium with a 3-1 victory in the Tiger Cup final first leg.

While Senayan bubbled and frothed with the passion of the Indonesian fans, shaking under their deafening chants, the loudest roar in the end came from a small dressing room deep in the stadium's bowels - that of Singapore's heroic players, singing and dancing to the shout of Lions boleh (Lions can).

And dismissed by a horde of pundits as lucky to be in the Tiger Cup final, how they showed that they can.

Defender Daniel Bennett fired a daisy cutter of a goal just three minutes in, teenager Khairul Amri in his first start for the national team extended that lead in the 39th minute and Agu Casmir put the Lions a commanding position for the final second leg next Sunday when he tapped in the third in the 69th minute.

Just to make things interesting though, Indonesian substitute Mahyadi Panggabean's freekick deflected past Lionel Lewis in injury time to hand his side a goal to cling onto for Sunday.

Singapore made one change to the side that started the home semi final against Myanmar, Amri being promoted to the starting lineup ahead of Itimi Dickson. Noh Alam Shah's brace in that match ensured that he retained his place in the first eleven alongside Agu Casmir in attack.

Unleashing his 'Tiga Tikus' trio of Boas Salossa, Elie Aiboy and Ilham Jayakesuma as well as the mercurial Kurniawan Yulianto on the Lions, Indonesia coach Peter Withe was obviously harbouring thoughts of ending the final as a contest in the first leg.

But left winger Boas was stretchered off with a fractured ankle after half an hour, and Ilham and Kurniawan were left to feed on scraps as time and time again, Indonesia's red crested attacking waves crashed harmlessly on a blue breakwater of Singapore's defence.

And that defence even got one of its members on the scoresheet in Bennett, who ate up the space between the goal and the ball rolled off Shahril Ishak's free kick before unleashing a rocket from 25 metres. His howitzer deflected off Indonesian Firmansyah and lofted over the despairing Hendro Kartiko: 1-0 Lions.

Minutes later, the home side could have been level but Boas smashed his shot off Lionel's post and out of play after the Lions failed to clear their lines convincingly.

Indonesia had sprung into life but were unable to make their chances count, no thanks to the rock solid defence marshalled by Aide Iskandar and Baihakki Khaizan.

Korean referee Kwong Jong Chul rightly dismissed the home side's claims for a penalty in the eleventh minute when Kurniawan dashed past Baihakki to meet Boas's sliding pass inside the box. Lionel though was on hand to clear with a well-timed interception.

In the 20th minute, Bennett's freekick floated past the static Indonesian defence and found its way to Noh Alam Shah. The Singapore striker was unable to meet the ball with full contact though, and Hendro was able to smother his header. Five minutes later, he clattered into Firmansyah in a reach for a 50-50 ball and rather harshly was shown the yellow card, ruling him out of the final second leg.

On the half hour mark, Boas limped off and the Indonesian attack had lost their sharpest point, which they never really recovered from.

Singapore deservedly surged ahead with half-time approaching as a well-worked move saw Alam Shah released on the right by Agu's pass. His fierce shot could only be parried by Hendro, and an onrushing Amri netted the rebound with delight.

Exhausted and carrying a rib injury, the 19-year-old forward was then withdrawn for Itimi Dickson. Singapore coach Radojko Avramovic made another tactical switch at half-time when he took off midfield anchorman Goh Tat Chuan - already carrying a yellow card from the semi-final - for Noh Rahman.

No sooner than mere minutes after Kwong's whistle signaling the start of the second half, the home team were dealt another blow as they went a man down.

Defender Mauly Lessy, booked in the first half for a reckless tackle on Itimi, was shown a straight red card for taking a swipe at the same man. The Singapore substitute was already falling after being shoulder charged by Lessy, which made the Indonesian defender's attempt at knocking the Nigerian born forward unconscious even more foolish than it already was.

Dickson made the man advantage even more apparent in the 69th minute, ghosting past the makeshift rightback Firmansyah and laying a low cross which Agu pounced on for his fifth goal of the tournament.

Frustrated and stunned, the Indonesian fans began to desert Senayan, some looking for shelter from the bottles and assorted missiles including firecrackers pelting down from the furious fans in the upper tiers, others simply giving up on their team.

Many others stayed however and when substitute Mahyadi's deflected freekick in the third minute of injury time gave the scoreline some respectability, they mustered a chant of In-do-nes-ia which reverberated around Senayan despite sounding more ragged than their confident singing before the match.