Chow Ying Lee stamped his mark in the second half against Division Five contestants werwinner in the preliminary round of the Cup, as he hit a long-awaited first Grilled hat-trick in the second half, thereby matching his total haul for the season before, and coming within one goal of last season.

The first half was largely the domain of the midfielders, as the under-fire Han Lik-Tsun fielded much his strongest side to stem criticism. Pablo Iten was the pick for the hotly-contested right midfield spot, but the Swiss converted winger endured a forgettable debut as he was mostly shut out of the game, partly due to his colleagues' penchant for directness.

Cutting out the elaboration was appropriate given how far apart the teams were in class, though, as senior midfielder Alex Fonseca took just two minutes to haul Grilled ahead, cementing his claim to another period in the Birds' engine room. Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim assisted probably the quickest start to a campaign with a delicate final pass.

Seytek Djekshenkulov and Zhu Changchun then got it off after six starts each, with the Kyrgyzstani blasting in after twenty minutes, and the Singaporean snapping up a loose pass to finish in the forty-second. In between, Mohd Safri profited through some sublime skill by Gleb Dorogan, which took two opponents out in an instant, to collect his fortieth Grilled goal without trouble.

Tian Yonghang evinced no sign of letting his Young Player of the Season accolade get to his head, as he busted his guts throughout and had to be pulled back by Tham Huat Kian to prevent a breakaway at one point. He would not walk off unrewarded, with a fine strike from the middle distance dropping just inside the post.

Chow, who had been quiet up till then, was completely transformed after the break, and the werwinners had no answer to his seemingly limitless speed. The entire defence could not stand and watch as he disappeared in a flash in the 62nd minute, seconds later taking out goalkeeper Choy Chin De with an intelligent square ball for Tian to tap in.

He then more or less took over the match, mixing mesmerising ball control in with his typically terrifying acceleration, even leaving his own teammates spellbound sometimes. Chow again got through without resistance in the 68th minute to score, a minute after getting booked for tracking back, and should have had his hat-trick ten minutes later had Zailizam bin Mansor not stopped him before that in a suspiciously illegal-looking manner that the linesman somehow let slide.

Djekshenkulov got a second after Madaini retired for Vukota to stretch his legs, and Chow finally was acknowledged with the treble he so richly deserved as he ran onto a questioning chip by Tian. Mohd Safri had time to pad his statistics with the eleventh before the whistle went on the stroke of the ninetieth minute.