JEDDAH, 19 September 2003 — There was mixed fortunes for the Western Region teams in the King Fahd Premier Soccer League yesterday with the fancied Al-Ahli continuing their poor start in the league with a 1-1 draw against Al-Qadisiya while the lesser light Al-Wehda stealing the thunder by springing the biggest surprise of the league.
Wehda of Makkah, always playing third fiddle to the two fancied Jeddah outfits Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli, had their day in the sun yesterday at home when they thumphed Al-Hilal of Riyadh 3-2 in a thriller of a match.
Twice Wehda had to play catch up, the second time just five minutes from time. But their never-say-die attitude and sustained verve in attack finally chopped the legs of Hilal’s hopes of coming away with full points. In the end they failed to pouch any. Hilal were put ahead by Abdullah Jammaan in the 22nd minute, and Wehda were quick to draw level, in the 37th minute, with Paulo D’Silva hitting true.
Three minutes after the break, Hilal once again went ahead through Trawri and managed to ward off the repeated Wehda attacks till the 85th minute. Hilal’s tough defense in the end proved dear. A Wehda attacker was brought down inside the box and the resultant penalty was slotted in. And then in injury time Wehda scored the winner through Al-Mehayani leaving no chance for Hilal to recover.
Ahli’s pedestrian run continued as Qadisiya made most of the running yesterday. Ironically Ahli went ahead in the 27th minute when Muhammad Al-Sheleya’s super cross spliced the grouped Qadisiya defense and in their haste to clear first time, Qadisiya hit an own goal with a defender managing to shoot the ball into his own goal.
With the teams trying to find their feet the match degenerated into robust play and Ahli were the first to feel the pain. In the 47th minute Annunji was shown the red card for an unprofessional tackle and the ten-man Ahli’s rhythm was thrown off for Qadisiya to cash in. They scored the equalizer in the 53rd minute with Marcos finding the mark. Marcos turned villain from hero when he too was sent off by the referee.
