In the second half, deflected strikes by Mikael Burkatt and Scott floored Rangers even before two more by Cleiton rubbed their noses in it.

They had made the early running. Ghanaian forward Yakubu Nassam Ibrahim’s pursuit of a through-ball saw him clash with the leaping Kitchee goalkeeper Paulo Da Silva, who was flattened. In committed mood, Ibrahim hared to the touchline to prevent Roberto Affonso Junior launching an attack, ending up in the treble-chasers’ dugout.

Scott had a hopeful pop for Kitchee but his drive lacked power, whereas Rangers, with Walter Soares pulling the strings in midfield, brought all the energy. They were destined to burn out after huffing and puffing without success.

Collecting the ball near the right corner with 29 minutes gone, Cleiton found Law Tsz-chun across the edge of the penalty area. Law turned it on to the unmarked Scott, in the same position from which he had shot tamely earlier. This time he connected sweetly, sending a curling right-footed chip into the top-left corner.

Briefly, that galvanised Rangers, for whom Yumemi Kanda had his side’s best chance thus far, a low drive that Da Silva blocked with his legs.

Their eagerness left the back door open. Cleiton, given acres of space on the left, caught out Leung with a cross that found Affonso Junior with the goal begging. Somehow he contrived to fire at centre-back Park, covering on the line.

Park performed another near-miracle in the 39th minute when Cleiton failed to connect with a header, leaving a blindsided Law a chance to turn the ball home. He scrambled a shot that ricocheted between the feet of Park, stationed again on the line with Leung prone. This time, it squirmed free for Cleiton to slide it in.

An eventful spell for Park continued three minutes later when he rose highest at a corner to plant a bullet-like header past Da Silva for 2-1.

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If that gave Rangers belief, it was undermined in the 45th minute, when Affonso Junior’s whipped cross from the right was nodded in at the near post by Poon.

“I was just focused on my task – I didn’t think about my father,” Poon said afterwards.

Kitchee were more composed after the interval, scarcely needing the stroke of fortune afforded them in the 58th minute when Burkatt’s shot from the right took a deflection to sneak in at the near post. Yet another deflection, off the luckless Park, sent Scott’s shot, from his usual spot, past Leung.

Quick-fire blows followed in the 72nd and 76th minutes, as Cleiton – with a snap shot from inside-left then the rebound when Burkatt struck a post – left Rangers looking at sixes and sevens.

“The score was a bit surprising,” Kitchee head coach Alex Chu Chi-kwong said. “We changed our game plan in the rain to press high and pounce on their mistakes.”

Ken Ng Kin, the club’s president, said their fifth treble since 2011 “shows our consistency”. “The whole team did a good job,” he said. “It’s been an exciting end to the season and this was the perfect full stop.”

Additional reporting by Chan Kin-wa