UGANDA PREMIER LEAGUE
The Date: October 20, 2023
The Contest: Vipers SC vs. SC Villa
The Time: 7pm (Live on Sanyuka TV)
The Venue: St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende
Following a lengthy international break, Vipers SC return to action this Friday in a hugely anticipated Uganda Premier League encounter against record champions SC Villa.
The Venoms will be returning at the St Mary’s Stadium, Kitende after over three weeks, as our last home game came against Arua Hill SC in a 2-0 victory.
However, our most recent game towards the international window had us draw 0-0 with Mbarara City FC on enemy territory, at Kakyeka Stadium.
The return to action will thus come with a sort of hunger from head coach Leo Neiva and his charges to bounce back to winning ways.
“The players are very focused on tomorrow’s game, they know we didn’t play well [in Mbarara] and they know why,” Neiva told Vipers media.
“To be confident is good, I feel confident but we have to be demanding. We have to be excited to play at home again after the two weeks break.”
The Brazilian tactician knows a game against one of the expected title challengers won’t come easy, despite Vipers being home.
“They won their last match before the international break [against NEC FC], but they played well. I expect a very difficult match.”
“In 90 minutes, we have to be very focused, consistent and keep our game plan,” he stressed
Neiva also revealed our new talisman Erick Kenzo Kambale is in contention and could make his long awaited debut.
“There are eyes on him and I think that should be exciting for Eric (Kambale).”
“There is a lot of time to impress the fans and I believe it’s only a matter of time.”
He also confirmed our stars who represented the Uganda Cranes in the concluded friendlies are all in contention and could feature.
“Good Milton Karisa, Bright Anukani, Livingstone Mulondo and Jack Komakech all came back injury free. We gave them a day off yesterday and we shall see how they perform in today’s last training session.”
Vipers has had recent dominion in this fixture at St Mary’s Stadium, managing victory in each of the past three games.
Our last meeting at Kitende had us smile to a comfortable 2-0 win, thanks to goals from Yunus Sentamu and Karim Watambala.
The game will make it 36 meetings between Vipers and Villa in the league, with us holding the lion’s share of victories.
We have registered 15 wins, 12 stalemates and eight defeats, scoring 45 goals and conceding
Head-To-Head:
Meetings: 35
Vipers wins: 15
Draws: 12
Losses: 8
Goals for: 46
Goals against: 33
Points: 57