Written By: Kenneth Ho

Courts Young Lions and 10-man Home United played out a 1-1 draw on Wednesday evening at Jalan Besar Stadium as the hosts stayed unbeaten in two consecutive matches for the first time this season .

Shamil Sharif nodded in the opener before Yasir Hanapi struck in a wonderful volley just before the break to cancel out the former’s effort.

Home United had to play with a man down for most of the second half after their skipper Noh Rahman received his second yellow card and marching orders in the 52nd minute.

Buoyed by their respective wins in last week’s matches, both teams came into this match brimming with confidence.

This showed right from the go, as both sides’ goalkeepers were tested immediately after kick off.

Iqbal Hussain first stung the palms of Home custodian Shahril Jantan while Bruno tested the opposition’s goalkeeper Syazwan Buhari with a fierce drive of his own.

After some half-chances, Young Lions then grabbed the lead in the 15th minute.

Sherif El Masri did most of the hard work as he shrugged off his marker to find the target but Shahril managed to produce a smart reflex save to deny the striker.

However, the rebound found its way into Shamil’s path and the he duly nodded into an empty net from close range.

Refusing to buckle down, Home United became even more offensive as they saw efforts from distance by Qiu Li and Kwon Dakyung coming close.

The visitors had a good chance to pull one back just after the half-hour mark when Bruno’s cut back across face of goal beat Syazwan, but there was nobody in the box to capitalise on it

A moment of brilliance by Yasir then provided the Protectors with the equaliser, as he latched onto a clearance to unleash a rocket into the top corner just before the half ended.

Both sides came out from the break and continued to probe at each other’s goal, but neither was really able to carve out a decent opportunity.

Despite being a man down, Home United nearly went ahead for the first time in the match in the 76th minute when Indra Sahdan found himself clear in the danger area but he fluffed his shot wide.

The game soon peppered out as Young Lions began to play deeper in the last ten minutes of the game to hold out for a superb point against their more illustrious opponents.