Tuesday April 5, 2016, Maroons Vs JMC Hippos – Luzira @ 4.30pm
Bottom-placed Maroons FC are still upbeat the team will survive the chop at the end of the 2015/16 Azam Uganda premier league season.
The Prison’s side have a tough home schedule on Tuesday against JMC Hippos but the head coach Paddy Kintu says his boys are still able to twist the trend upwards and get maximum points from the game despite admitting pressure.
“The team has not been doing well but it happens in football,” he told upl.co.ug. “They (JMC) were promoted together with my team but have had a fairly better season. All that said, we have a target to survive the drop, and still hopeful we can do it,” he added.
The Prison warders have not been a lucky side when facing teams from across the Nile losing all previous three encounters against Sadolin (1-0), Bul (1-4) and JMC (1-0).
The first leg win at Kakindu came courtesy of Abdulrahim Ajab’s strike at the death of first half. In that game, Maroons then coached by Asaph Mwebaze ended the match with ten men after Geoffrey Kiyemba received matching orders in the 75th minute.
JMC Hippos have turned out to be a side to reckon with winning their previous three games albeit against top sides; Express, Police and Bright Stars to jump to fifth place on the log.
Coach Odoch warns his boys of any complacency in the remaining games stressing that the struggle is still on.
“We have to respect every team in the league after all we are in the same league,” he said adding “That is why none has won all their games nor lost all. They are a good side though may not have been lucky. They gave us quite a hard time in the first leg so we have to be at our best tomorrow (Tuesday).
Maroons long time absentee Ronald Orombi is still on the sidelines as well as Hood Muliki but good news is the return of Pius Winju and Allan Anguyo.
JMC’s Patrick Onyango is still out while Dan Shabena’s fitness will be on test before the game. The youngster was part of Under 20 team that featured in Rwanda.
Maroons are rooted at the bottom of the 16-team league with 12 points from 21 games and are seven points below the safety line.