Relegation battle down to the wire

Wednesday, May 15 result

Gaddafi 3-2 Express 

Gaddafi led, fell behind and led again to drag the relegation fight between themselves, Busoga United and UPDF to the final day of the season.

The hosts at Gaddafi Arena in Jinja edged the five-goal thriller as they beat Express 3-2 to get to the final game of the StarTimes Uganda Premier League season this Saturday with a survival chance.

Frank Mulimi, Baker Buyala and David Bagoole scored Gaddafi’s goals while Marvin Oshaba grabbed a brace for Express.

Gaddafi won an early penalty and Mulimi converted it inside two minutes of the game, but Express levelled matters through Oshaba four minutes later. 

Oshaba then doubled Express’ and his advantage on 14 minutes to complete his brace. 

But with Gaddafi knowing defeat here would seal their relegation, they dug deep after the halt time break and got an equaliser on 78 minutes through Buyala.

From this point they sensed an opportunity to go for all three points, and they got them in the 90th minute when Steven Munguchi set up Bagoola for the winner. 

For that goal and his general impressive play, Bagoole was awarded the Pilsner Man of the Match accolade.

Relegation, survival permutations 

The result moves Gaddafi one place and point above UPDF, but with both remaining in relegation spots. 

Gaddafi joined Busoga United, right above the former, on 25 points, with UPDF a point fewer. 

If Busoga beat title chasing BUL on Saturday, they will stay up at the expense of Gaddafi and UPDF.

A Gaddafi win at Kitara, coupled with a Busoga defeat at BUL would also save the former,.

For UPDF to survive, they must beat Wakiso Giants and hope both Busoga and Gaddafi lose their respective games.