Signs of an intriguing 2019/20 football season are already visible as various clubs continue to strengthen their respective squads with valuable additions on top of offloading the surplus to requirements stuff while others have even started training in readiness for the task ahead.
As Vipers sports club, our own preparations kicked off a week ago with a two day workshop which looked at aligning the different departments within the modern football modalities.
However, as we move forward to the forthcoming season, its also important to look back at Vipers long, emotional but unrewarding 2018/19 season.
It was another roller coaster campaign at Kitende when the Venoms engaged in five different competitions like the Caf Champions League, Caf Confederations Cup, Cecafa Kagame Cup, Startimes Uganda Premier League and Uganda Cup where we saw a real mix of memorable highs plus deflating lows along the way.
Attentions are swiftly turning to ensuring the coming season becoming more rewarding with better fortunes for the club on the pitch but before that, below is the outgoing season in numbers:
44
Vipers sports club played a huge 44 games across five competitions during the 2018/2019 season – seven more than the 2017/18 campaign.
20
The number of matches the Venoms won in all competitions last season with 16 in the league, 2 in Uganda cup, one each in Caf champions league and confederations cup respectively scoring 45 goals altogether which is a ratio of 1.02 goals per game. It’s the same number of clean sheets Vipers kept in the whole season implying we conceded in each of the other 24 matches.
9
The amount of defeats Vipers suffered across all competitions throughout the entire season conceding 34 goals making it a ratio of 1.04 goals per match.
12
The number of league goals our club top scorer Dan Mzee Serunkuuma registered during the season 5 more than his closest rival Tito Okello and 5 fewer than what he managed while emerging the league leading scorer in 2017/18.
22
The number of games head coach Micheal Nam Ouma managed since taking charge in January with a return of 8 wins, 9 draws and 5 losses.
21
The number of home matches Vipers played at St Marys stadium Kitende managing 13 wins, 4 draws, 1 loss plus 1 walkover when Rusekere Growers failed to turn up for a Uganda cup round of 64 encounter and 27 goals were scored in the process.
1
Micheal Nam Ouma became the first Kenyan born to manage Vipers upon his interim appointment in January this year thus becoming the fourth foreign coach to handle the Venoms after Nigerian Ambrose Duru Chukuma, Portuguese Miguel duarte da Costa and Mexican Javier Martinez Espinosa.
54
The number of yellow cards the Venoms were shown during the outgoing campaign together with 2 red cards.
59
The number of points Vipers garnered out of the 30 league matches to finish second on the log 7 points behind eventual champions KCCA FC, making it 6 points fewer than our tally during the 2017/18 season.
21
Vipers sports club had 21 matches televised live on Startimes TV 4 more than KCCA the league champions.
15
The number of goals the Venoms conceded at home out of the 20 matches across all competitions.
11
Vipers has managed to keep 11 clean sheets under Micheal Ouma’s reign out of the 22 matches he has handled as head coach scoring 21 goals and conceded 18.