The clock has gone to eleven for Niculae Stanca's grand plan, as the Birds were again not even the best Jurong side in the league. It was newbies are newbies' turn to sweep the series, as they found their feet to gain automatic promotion with a near-perfect points record, while hitting five past Grilled in each of their meetings.

newbies' forward trio of Huang Kangyan, Ante Skrjanc and Giulio Bollini cut a swathe through all comers, dislodging Grilled's own boys from the Golden Boot for the first time in seasons, with Mohd Safri bin Mohd Kassim five goals behind with eleven.

Following an encouraging start against Yew Tea, two home defeats to -= Manchester United =- and newbies followed. Six wins on the trot after that was not enough to make up any ground before the trip to newbies, where Huang put the Birds to the sword after Mohd Safri went off injured.

Saraca Swashbucklers proved to be Grilled's bogey once more in the Cup, which left Stanca scrambling for the Singapore Community Cup to secure silverware. Together with old foes Arrogancae and fresh-faced Marina Bay Sands, the Left Justice Bringer of Yellow Turbos made it to the Grand Finals, but the combination of singnet_utd, United and Robbie Football Club proved far too strong.

This was not what the fans had signed up for, particularly after the midseason arrival of goalkeeper Wong Tian Han was expected to have fixed the team's most pressing weakness. Moreover, the wing tandom of Wong Ping Shun and Low Aik Jia wowed with individual brilliance, but the total proved rather less than the sum of the parts.

All this has led Stanca to plead for one last shot at the title, failing which he will accept that he has brought the team as far as he could. He must have wished that the seniors were as accomplished as the U-20 side, who look well on the way to retaining their championship, alongside nuturing such midfield gems as Kazuto Hoshi, Zahin Abdul Ghaffar Farhan and Oliver Wing.