The promise of Grilled's Cup-winning season petered out gradually after a great start, as preventable draws against Scallop Soccer Team and The Void Deck would haunt them later on. They did get past Finnish representatives Niki´s Eggmen in the Hattrick Masters, but an unexplainable shadow over Mohd Safri led to them falling against FK Željeznicar Sarajevo without their talisman.

This was then followed by The Match Losers turfing them out with a first-rate rearguard performance, which at least left the Birds with a clear objective for the remainder of the season. However, they dropped more points against -= Manchester United =- and All Stars Team, and a loss to Scallop in the twelfth round would eventually hand the title to the dark horses.

Clément Meyer and Che Harun bin Sabtu were introduced as squad players, but did not have too much of an impact as Grilled stayed with their favoured eleven most of the time; Djan Bacelar was driven to admit that the side was fast running out of time, and hinted at a rebuild should they not make the big time on their next try.

Otherwise, this period did at least see the Birds strike out in another way, as they had a hand in forming an affiliate side in Division Four. The newly-christened Farmer Bunnies had a rough start against CharlesCheesePie, but steadily progressed as their carefully-chosen set of defender trainees blossomed, and were fairly tough to crack by the end of their first season. The established Taveners were too strong to catch, but a third-place finish on their first try boded well for the Buns.