Grilled ended the season with an eighth consecutive friendly defeat, but with an upside as the reserve side held their own against the claret-shirted FC HELP of Bulgaria.

The wet grass did the Birds some favours, as the technically more proficient opponents found several of their attacks broken up through no effort on Grilled's part. Foremost upon those was on a break down the left by Angel Gradishki, who only had to center for an easy finish but ended up tumbling over instead.

Gradishki kept plugging away, and despite the adverse conditions managed to get past Mirchev more often than not. In the nineteenth minute, he pulled it back for a rampaging Iliyan Peshev, whose clipped shot barely flashed past Shun Jin.

Grilled's trainee goalie had been improving, though, and he displayed increased awareness when he stooped quickly to collect Stoykov's low header. Not only that, he had the presence of mind to release the ball quickly, leading to Zheng Lihai booting the ball past Yordan Stankov on the counterattack.

That didn't prevent FC HELP from getting back in front though a penalty, converted by Gradishki, and extending their lead as Alpay Gürses made it through the middle. They did lose their central defender Tzvetan Vutov however, as he committed yellow-card offences immediately after each of those goals.

It would be scary to think of what Gradishki could have done had the weather been to his advantage, as nearly everything came down his side; Gürses nearly scored another as the veteran winger picked him out from distance, but Shun Jin won applause with his flying save.

A substitution on either side didn't affect the match much, and after Mohd Firdaus went close after good work from Darong, FC HELP made it four-one as Stoykov dribbled past Woon Jin with authority. Grilled did pull another back, as Mirchev belted it in from the left.