CAIRO - Mohamed Fadl repaid his manager's faith with a late strike to give Ahly a 1-0 victory over El-Geish Sunday night. The victory lifts Ahly to second place temporarily, three points adrift of leaders Zamalek who will visit Petrojet on Tuesday. El-Geish remain 10th. Fadl, who started for the first time under Manuel Jose, ended a series of missed chances with the winning goal on 82 minutes at the Military Academy Stadium. Ahly boss Jose made some changes to the side that beat Police Union last week, handing Algerian starlet Amir Sayoud his first start this season. Sayoud, along with Fadl and Mohamed Barakat, replaced Mohamed Abou-Treika, Osama Hosni and Dominique da Silva. Ahly dictated play in a one-side first half, but their first genuine attempt on goal came in the 28th minute, which witnessed a blitz of saves by El-Geish keeper Mohamed Al-Shennawi. The former Ahly youngster made three saves in one minute to deny Sayoud a debut goal from close range, seconds before foiling Barakat and Sayed Moawad. Ahly kept the pressure on and five minutes later Fadl was sent through by a clever Barakat header, only for the lone Ahly striker to blast wide of the post. A minute later, Fadl returned the favor to Barakat with an incisive through pass, but Al-Shennawi made another fine intervention to foil the Ahly midfielder. The save of the first half came from the other end of the field though as Amer Sabri almost finished off a swift counter attack, only to be thwarted by an excellent save from Ahmed Adel. Jose introduced Abou-Treika for Sayed Moawad at half time, switching to 4-4-2 with central defender Ahmed Al-Sayed moving to left back. Fadl was Ahly's most active player upfront but looked rusty in front of goal as he missed another fine chance to break the deadlock after the hour mark. Jose brought on strikers Dominique and Geddo, but opted to keep the faith in the misfiring Fadl, who appeared to be receiving a speech of encouragement from his manager prior to Ahly's final substitution. The in-form Al-Shennawi was back again to deny the Reds on 73 minutes, this time parrying away a point-blank header by Abou-Treika. Eight minutes from time, Jose's decision to keep Fadl paid off as the Ahly striker was finally on target with his first goal since September. Al-Shennawi came off his goal to thwart Dominique as Fadl chased the loose ball before slotting home in an empty net with a delicate chest touch on the second attempt. Dominique should have doubled Ahly's lead two minutes later, but blasted his effort over the bar after cleverly avoiding the attentions of Gaish's last defender. Four minutes from the end, goalkeeper Adel almost gave away the clean sheet when he failed to catch an innocuous freekick, but was saved by an excellent clearance from Al-Sayed.
