Vipers Target Top Spot as they Visit On form Soana |Azam Uganda Premier League:

Farouk Miya leaves KCCA’s defender Timothy Awany on ground last season. He will be influential on Saturday. Photo credit: Vipers website.

 

Saturday, 31st October 2015,

Soana FC Vs Vipers SC

Kavumba Recreational Grounds, 4:00pm

In the last four league meetings between Soana and Vipers, the latter has managed three wins and one draw.

As Vipers visit Kavumba on Saturday, Edward Golola’s troop will be plotting a third straight win at the ground where they have scored five times in the last two meeting and have not conceded a goal. But that does not make Vipers overwhelming favorites going into the tie.

Soana have just defeated 16 times league champions SC Villa Jogoo at the same venue on Tuesday, a win that pushed them to 4^th on the 16 team log with 14 points.

“They (Soana) have had s a good run, to be in the top four when teams like URA, Villa are struggling in the bottom half of the table is no mean feat,” Golola told www.viperssc.com

“We need to approach the game with a lot of discipline especially defensively. Our record against them at Kavumba maybe something to look at but at this moment it will mean nothing.”

“We want to go there, give our best and get three points, and we already have a game plan that will get us the victory,” Golola added.

Edward Golola wants his team to pick 3 points at Soana and close gap at the top.

Vipers will welcome back six players who helped the national team qualify for the third straight African Nations Championship (CHAN) after Uganda defeated Sudan 4-0 over two legs to seal the final slot.

Farouq Miya, Shafiq Bakaki, James Alitho, Keziron Kizito, John Ssemazzi and Erisa Sekisambu, all resumed training on Tuesday and are all available for selection.

“Their return is a big boost to the team, of course since they recommenced training with us there has been a lot of life and competition in camp. We have to go to Kavumba with the same spirit,” said skipper Nicolas Wadada.

Defenders Yusuf Mukisa, Harid Lwaliwa and Musa Malunda have been impressive in the absence of Bakaki.

Midfielders Allan Kyambadde, Sadam Juma and Joseph Mpande have also been awesome in the absence of Bukenya, Miya and Kizito.

A win for Vipers will take them top of the log on 17 points that is if KCCA fail to pick maximum points off Maroon in Luzira.

KCCA and Vipers’ goal difference is at six, Vipers will also ascend to the summit if they can score more goals than the former

The Azam Uganda Premier League took a break of close to three weeks as the national team of home based players was engaged in the qualifiers of the African Nations Championship (Chan).

Vipers was meant to return to action to on Tuesday against Police in Buikwe but the team requested that the game be postponed since six it’s player were engaged with the Cranes.

While the break was on, Vipers engaged in five friendly games wining four and drawing one, head coach Edward Golola believes the players benefited from the games.
“First of all we needed to find a way of keeping our players busy and maintaining their match fitness while others needed to improve theirs” Golola told the club’s official website.

“It was a bit costly but the players needed it and many of them gained a lot, people like Allan Kyambadde and Mpande Joseph who have been struggling with form have showed great improvement.”

Vipers defeated Masavu 2-0, Katale 2-1 before drawing with Proline 2-2, and the league holders picked themselves up to beat Entebbe 5-3 before whitewashing an Entebbe Select side 7-0.

The goals do improve the confidence of the players, because we need to have them coming from all over the place,” Golola said before showing his concern about the goals they conceded.

“We conceded six goals in the five games, that’s an area we need to work on because we need to have a mean defense, especially when teams are all looking at us as a target.”

Vipers’ seventh league game will be against Soana this Saturday in Kavumba, a ground Vipers has neither lost nor conceded a goal

However the home side has begun the new season in form despite serviving the knife on the last day of last season.

Elsewhere, Lweza FC and visitors JMC will have pray that the rain doesn’t pour heavily at the poorly drained Wankuluku stadium. On Friday the much anticipated Kampala derby between SC Villa Jogoo and Express FC failed to kick off due to water logged pitch at Nakivubo.

Lweza lies in 11^th with 9 points from 7 games while JMC is four places above the hosts with 11 points attained from 7 games.

In Lugazi, home side URA FC seeks to rejuvenate themselves against fellow struggling the Saints FC. URA, in 9^th , have only won two of the seven games played so far drawing 3 times and collecting 2 losses while the visitors sit at the bottom of the 16 team log with 2 draws and 4 losses out of six games played.
Others are Maroons FC Vs KCCA FC at Luzira Prisons Grounds, Bright Stars FC Vs Police FC at Champions Stadium, Matugga and the Jinja derby where BUL FC face off with Sadolin Paints FC at Kakindu Stadium, Jinja.

Vicent Kakooza