Seven minutes was all it took for Grilled to see off the Phoenixes once more, as the brood of Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim, Chow Ying Lee and Tian Yonghang all found the target. That completely reversed Tampines' one-goal lead, and a fourth by Seytek Djekshenkulov ensured that the Birds were triumphant at Phoenix Park.

The home side has been comparatively quiet in the transfer market, with their only moves since the last time the teams met being the sale of promising teenaged winger Peter Ng, and the arrival of former Escalations wide midfielder Du Dongkai for S$3 million. While Du started on the left, a surprising number of the Phoenixes' top stars were rested, with the likes of Fu Tingyu and Lew Lai Ming not even on the bench.

Grilled's eleven practically picked itself, with no changes from the side that handled Red Freaking Chillies with distinction. Alex Fonseca made another start in central midfield, while Paolo Iten kept his preferred right wing place after putting in several eye-catching shifts.

The Birds hardly had it all their way, though, for while the Phoenixes were not in particularly fine form, having not won in the five league rounds since their victory over heimu XI, they had shown some sharpness by scoring in nearly all of the matches; the lack of a designated striker concentrated their energies wonderfully, and it was certainly no obstacle to Hong Leong Ah in the 21st minute.

Hong, a product of the well-known Phoenixes JC youth side, sprinted into the Grilled penalty area with the assurance of a seasoned attacker after Seytek Djekshenkulov and Zhu Changchun were slow to buff up the defence. Former national mainstay Abdillah bin Bahauddin saw the run and slid it through to Hong, who helped it past Dexter Stacey to loud acclaim from the stands for his first ever league goal.

The Birds wasted a great opportunity to get right back into it as another TPJC graduate Mohd Ibrahim Hazmirul Afi unwisely attempted to try and bully Mohd Safri off the ball, only to get anticipated and shrugged off by the battle-hardened forward. The former national U-20 star then hit it straight at U-20 senior Lu Yunyu, to his own intense disappointment.

Grilled's golden period arrived on the half-hour, with Tian Yonghang trusting in his long-range ability to ram one with both power and accuracy past Lu. The home side had barely digested the change in circumstances when Mohd Safri heckled the defence right from kick-off to force a corner, and went on to head it in, aided by a beautiful delivery from captain Qassem Madaini.

It was Phoenixes' turn next in this series of cuts and thrusts, but Stacey threw his body adequately to cover Mohd Ibrahim's effort after the lad's lung-bursting effort from defence, and it would be Grilled that got the successful counter, with Chow Ying Lee taking the lanky Om Bangara for pure pace and even sliding it between Lu's legs in a cheeky finish.

With Du slowed after his hard fall towards the end of the first-half, getting two goals looked tricky for the defensively-oriented Tampines team, but they again made a mockery of such predictions with a well-worked reducer four minues into the second half. The understanding between their youngsters had to be seen to be believed, and Kwek Kok Tse polished off a succession of smooth passes with a cool grounder around Stacey.

Confidence restored, the Phoenixes would look to build upon that foundation, but they omitted to worry about Grilled's central attacking options for an instant in a fatal lapse. In the scramble to recover their positions, no-one noticed Djekshenkulov sneak in right down the middle, and the Kyrgyzstani lobbed Lu for his first of the season.

There was a rather ugly moment after that as the frustrated Norizam bin Abdul Manap took Paolo Iten from behind, ending the Swiss player's game. Referee Su Zhidong would dole out a yellow after consultation despite some probably-justified card-waving from Mohd Safri, and Shiya Shaahee made a fair if unconspicuous role-playing replacement as the Birds sought to protect the lead, which they did.