AL AHLI last night climbed off the bottom of the VIVA Bahrain Premier League table with a valuable 2-1 victory over Al Najma.

A first win in 11 league outings since early January at Muharraq Stadium comes as a timely boost to Al Ahli's chances of retaining their VIVA Bahrain Premier League status for next season.

Despite ultimately losing out 2-3 to the same opposition in the reverse fixture back in January, Al Ahli pushed Al Najma all the way on that occasion and so will not have been overawed by the task at hand heading into last night's match-up.

Al Najma however, have come into something of a rich vein of form in recent weeks that has seen them climb to fifth in the table and they entered the arena keen to continue an unbeaten run of four games.

That form continued into the first half of last night's encounter, as Al Najma took a 1-0 lead into the break courtesy of any opening goal from Saeed Qassim.

The game was turned on its head in the second half however, as firstly Mohammed Abdul Haleem equalised just after the hour mark and then Saeed Mohammed hit the winner with nine minutes remaining.

The result now sees Al Ahli climb above fellow strugglers East Riffa into ninth place with two games remaining. East Riffa however, have a chance to retake the advantage tonight when they take on table-toppers and local rivals Riffa tonight in their game in hand.

In the second match of last night at Muharraq, Al Bahrain produced a second successive upset as they recorded a 1-0 win over Al Manama.

Brazilian star Max was once again the hero of the hour for Al Bahrain, as he pounced for the only goal of the game after a quarter of an hour.

The result sees Al Manama continue the unenviable win-loss-win-loss sequence but, thanks to the earlier slip-up by Al Najma, they manage to retain fourth spot in the table

For Al Bahrain meanwhile, remain seventh but are now level on points with Hidd and three clear of Al Hala and Al Ahli.

The league continues tonight with the Riffa derby match at Shaikh Khalifa Sports City in Isa Town from 5.45pm, with Busaiteen and Al Hala facing off in Muharraq at the same time.

Muharraq take on Hidd in the late game of the day at Shaikh Khalifa City from 7.45pm.