Tuesday, April 26, 2016
Vipers SC vs SCVU, Buikwe Stadium, 4pm
Vipers SC will be hoping to avoid a second successive home defeat when they welcome SCVU to Buikwe in the Azam Uganda Premier League (UPL) on Tuesday.
More so, the defending champions will want to enter Friday’s epic clash with table leaders KCCA on the back of victory.
Vipers lost their last match at home, succumbing 1-0 to Bul when victory could have reduced KCCA’s lead at the summit to just six points ahead of Tuesday.
This was after KCCA, top on 51 points, were shocked by the Saints when the relegation-threatened but much Namanve side upset them 2-1 at Nakivubo in the Lugogo outfit’s previous league match.
But as KCCA try to bounce back away to Simba, also on Tuesday, Vipers coach George Nsimbe will be desperate to have his boys – who were boosted by seeing off Hope Doves 2-0 to storm the Uganda Cup semifinals on Sunday – get firing in the league again.
And after what befell KCCA at the hands of the Saints, and their own shortcomings against Bul, Nsimbe – more than anyone – knows too well the dangers of taking lightly the league’s punching bags in SCVU.
“We shall take it (SCVU) as if we are playing KCCA,” Nsimbe, who has a fully fit squad to pick from for Tuesday’s engagement, told upl.co.ug on Monday.
“They are fighting relegation and will come all out on us. So we must be at our best and return to winning ways. And we also need to reduce the gap on KCCA.”
Vipers leading scorer in the league with 11 goals, Erisa Ssekisambu, returned to his best as he netted a brace in the side’s Uganda Cup fixture at the weekend and Nsimbe will hope he keeps his scoring boots on for the remaining six games of the league.
Having lost 17 of their 26 matches so far, relegation for SCVU – who are second from bottom with 19 points with four matches left – is almost certain and any positive result in Buikwe will be an upset of huge proportions.