STARTIMES UGANDA PREMIER LEAGUE
The Date: February 02, 2020
The Contest: Vipers vs. Onduparaka
The Time: 4:00pm (Live Sanyuka TV)
The Venue: St. Mary’s Stadium, Kitende
Vipers Sports Club are ready to showcase their bouncebackability potential when they host Onduparaka FC in the StarTimes Uganda Premier League (SUPL) at St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende on Sunday (February 2).
It has been a roller-coaster atmosphere for the Venoms in the past couple of weeks with a change in the technical guard after a series of indifferent results.
And, now, after a three-match winless streak during which the Kitende stalwarts haven’t scored a single goal, the pressure is on for them to show their title credentials by immediately returning to winning ways.
Under new tactician Fred Kajoba, Vipers played out some enterprising football despite the barren draw against Mbarara City away in Bombo on Tuesday.
That was the second straight league match that Vipers had failed to pick up maximum points and with the Onduparaka tie on card in earnest, coach Kajoba and his charges will be looking to cast the demons and start the new month of February on a new clean slate.
“Obviously the result in Bombo was not what we anticipated. It was quite disappointing but we are more positive going into the Onduparaka game.”
Vipers SC Coach, Fred Kajoba
“We have all our focus in one direction. It is all about the league. We have to challenge and win it.”
Vipers will be buoyed by close challengers KCCA’s 2-1 loss to URA at the Arena of Visions in Ndejje on Friday (January 31) and will start the match knowing that they can go five points clear atop the SUPL standings.
Playing in-front of the home crowd for the first time, coach Kajoba will be pumped up to win over the faithful with a resolute performance worth three points.
“If you look at the last game, we created two or three chances but did not use them well. The boys have been doing good things in practice. The speed is good, attitude is positive and we hope to do well against Onduparaka.”
A quick look at the statistics corner also points in favour of Vipers as the visitors have never won at St Mary’s Stadium in their last three visits.
Last meetings:
26/10/19: Onduparaka 0 – 0 Vipers
26/02/19: Onduparaka 0 – 0 Vipers
08/01/19: Vipers 3 – 0 Onduparaka
13/02/18: Vipers 2 – 0 Onduparaka
28/10/17: Onduparaka 0 – 0 Vipers
09/05/17: Vipers 4 – 1 Onduparaka
15/11/16: Onduparaka 1 – 0 Vipers
Should Venoms beat the Caterpillars, they will not only have stretched their lead on top of the table to five points but will also have a psychological edge going into next week’s visit to Bul FC in Njeru, Jinja.
Team news:
Fahad Bayo wobbled off the pitch during the 0-0 stalemate with The Ankole Lions but is fit to face Onduparaka FC.
Abraham Ndugwa and Allan Kayiwa were left out of the match day squad in Bombo on Tuesday but the pair will be in contention.
Halid Lwaliwa is yet to recover from injury and will thus not be available. Geoffrey Wasswa is expected to skipper the team, again, against the Caterpillars.
Siraje Ssentamu is also doubtful but may be back for our next fixture away in Njeru, Jinja against Bul FC.
Umar Kyebatala has shaken off a fever that kept him out of the Mbarara City encounter and could make the Match Day squad.
Copyright 2020 Vipers Sports Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.viperssc.co.ug as the source.