One loss followed another as the reserve side was busted five-nothing by Bosnian Division Two challengers FC Čelik, whose 19 year-old Belgian midfielder Arno Feys had the time of his life pillaging three against the Birds' unconvincing rearguard, who to be fair had their hands full with giant target man Arif Konjić in the first half, and the slippery Miquel Folch in the second.

Truth be told, Grilled were not all that hopeless, as Shiya Shaahee dominated his wing and Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim began to display a precocious assurance in midfield. The balance slowly swung in favour of the visitors, though, with Konjić revealing unsettling grace for a man his size to find the bar from a delicate clip in the 24th minute.

There was a bit of a mix-up when Omer Bašić, unfamiliar with the electronic board, ran to the sidelines only to be informed of the misunderstanding. That didn't affect his team's grip on the game, and Oriol Vicens nicked the opener from a corner after Dževad Alićehajić's strong header was met at the post by Colby Awyong.

It was going to be a long day for Dan Seng by all appearances, but the young goalkeeper would come out of it with some credit, such as when he threw himself at a Domenik Bermüller blast, and not long after that tipped a nod-on by the German winger over. In between, Mohd Safri created an opportunity for himself, invading down the left, but let fly a poor one.

Konjić was, if not unstoppable, a real pain for Bakhtiar and Awyong, and it was almost unbelievable that he didn't get on the scoresheet, especially after going clear in the 40th minute, only to make bad contact. Feys made no such mistake when the ball found its way back right from the goal-kick, shooting hard and low as Konjić screened Bakhtiar aside.

The news that Konjić went off at half-time was warmly received by Grilled, but it turned out that his substitute Miguel Folch was also a hard customer, if in an entirely different way. The Birds found out just how soon enough, as Folch got the ball, blazed past the defence like they were standing still, and cut it in for Bermüller to finally beat Seng for 3-0.

Grilled were realistically down to hoping not to be shut out completely at this stage, but Awyong's cheeky improvisation from a rare corner was spotted by Čelik goalie Hugo Martínez Zuccardi. At the other end, he got bamboozled by the constant interchange between Bašić, who had evidently gotten his navigation right, and Zoran Lazović, leaving Feys free to knick a fourth in style.

Feys, who has found central midfield much more to his taste than his previous wing position, then topped off his hat-trick less than a minute later, with Bakhtiar's embarassingly transparent appeal for a stoppage ignored by the match officials. Fey simply continued dribbling on, and slotted it past Seng confidently before wheeling away in celebration.

The Birds' last hope fizzled out when Shaahee had a top quality drive from the right put off by Zuccardi despite being almost too fast for the cameras to track, and the only change that Grilled got out of the game wound up being Walter Ross for Awyong, very late on.