Race to the wire as Vipers, KCCA and Villa win

KCCA 1-0 BUL
Vipers SC 5-2 Express

UPDF 0-2 SC Villa

Other

Wakiso Giants 2-0 Soltilo Bright Stars

Kampala, Uganda | UPL.CO.UG | All three StarTimes Uganda Premier League title contenders won their respective games on Tuesday to remain level on points with two matches of the 2022/23 season left to play.

Leaders on goal difference and defending champions, Vipers SC, hit Express 5-2 in a seven-goal thriller as KCCA edged BUL 1-0 at the MTN Omondi Stadium and SC Villa beat UPDF 2-0 away in Bombo.

The above results keep the heat and excitement up as Ugandans absorb the closest title run-in in recent years.

With only two matchdays left, all three challengers – Vipers, KCCA and Villa – are level on 49 points, leaving the trio with little or no margin of error.

Vipers have a better goal difference of 22, followed by KCCA on 16 and Villa at seven.

At St Mary’s Stadium Kitende, the champions, Vipers, made their intentions clear quite early.

Within the first 45 minutes, the Venoms were 3-1 up at the expense of Express, Bright Anukani giving them a head-start from a penalty spot on 12 minutes.

Five minutes later, Yunus Sentamu – back from injury – finished off skipper Milton Karisa’s pass for 2-0.

Joseph Akandwanaho gave the visitors, Express, some hope when he reduced the deficit with a 40th minute goal but Karisa restored the two-goal lead on the stroke of half time when he turned in Abdul Karim Watambala’s ball.

Three to one at the break and you thought it was done and dusted. But alas!

Express refused to go away, Marvin Oshaba pulling one back for the Red Eagles when he connected home Enoch Ssebagala’s pass. 3-2, Vipers led! Game on. Or so you thought.

But with nine minutes left, the Venoms struck again, Karisa setting up Cromwell Rwothomio for Vipers to lead 4-2.

Coach Alex Isabirye’s men then extinguished any hopes of Express getting anything out of the game when Rwothomio completed his brace by finishing off Watambala’s pass for a Vipers 5-2 victory.

Table — Match Day 28

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— StarTimes Uganda Premier League (@UPL) May 16, 2023

At Lugogo, it was a hard-fought 1-0 victory for KCCA over a battling BUL thanks to Allan Okello’s 36th minute penalty and goalkeeper Benjamin Ochan’s Pilsner Man of the Man performance.

Away from Kampala in Bombo, defender Gift Fred put in a Pilsner Man of the match performance, marshalling a clean sheet and scoring in Villa’s 2-0 victory over hosts, the UPDF.

Gift Fred put Villa 1-0 up on 49 minutes before the Jogoos season’s top performer, Charles Bbaale, completed the victory with the visitors’ second goal and his 11th of the campaign.

Bbaale is now level with Allan Kayiwa of Express on the scoring charts. Vipers, KCCA and Villa are back in action next Tuesday, May 23, 2023.

In the only game that neither had an impact on the title nor relegation, Sharif Kimbowa scored a brace for Wakiso Giants as the Purple Sharks beat Soltilo Bright Stars 2-0.

Title run-in remaining fixtures

Vipers, 49 points

BUL (A)

Busoga United (H)

KCCA, 49 points

Busoga United (A)

Bright Stars (H)

SC Villa, 49 points

Blacks Power (H)

URA (H)

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SOURCE: UPL.CO.UG