Draw stalls Shabab's progress

Sharjah: A lacklustre Shabab Club missed out on their chance to continue pressuring second-place Bani Yas following a poor 1-1 home draw to Sharjah on Sunday night in a match the visitors should arguably have won.  

Sharjah got the better of the first half with a lone goal from Marcelo Oliveira Da Silva on 30 minutes.

The near post header converted from a Nawaf Musabah, Khamis Mohammad one-two cross from the right made up for an earlier Marcelo effort disallowed as offside on 16 minutes.

Marcelo was adjudged to have jumped the gun from a Musabah free-kick taken from close to the half-way line as he nutmegged keeper Hassan Sharif from the rebound.

"I will put it on Facebook tonight, it wasn't offside," screamed Sharjah coach Manuel Cajuda from the touchline.      

Shabab's 66th minute equaliser from Julio Cesar who rounded Mahmoud Ibrahim after Carlos Villanueva's through-ball gave Cajuda further reason to log on.

While Wi-Fi was well and truly needed on the team bus going back to Sharjah as an advancing Nawaf Musabah was downed by keeper Sharif on 88 minutes without a penalty awarded - much to Cajuda's distaste.

The draw stalls Shabab's progress in the peak of a last minute dash for second-place with Bani Yas slowing following the departure of Lofti Al Benzarti.

In the night's other game, Al Wasl beat Ittihad Kalba away on the east-coast 3-2.