Vipers mount more pressure on Villa, KCCA

SC Villa’s 11 unbeaten run came to an end after losing 1-0 to Arua Hill SC.

Ronald Media Innocent’s first-half strike was enough to condemn the league leaders to a shocking defeat at Muteesa II Stadium, Wankulukuku.

Moreover, third-placed Vipers SC 1-0 win against UPDF in Bombo has heaped more pressure on SC Villa. Vipers have four games in hand and currently have 35 points against Villa’s 43. Perhaps the only solace for Villa on match day 23 was second-placed KCCA 2-0 loss to URA. 

For KCCA, everything that can possibly go wrong is happening. The team is not playing well, and that is to put it mildly. Results are not coming. The club is out of the Stanbic Uganda Cup and going by their recent form, the league championship appears to be slipping out of their grasp.

The fans are enraged and management is not sure where to go from here. Yet older fans of the club would do well to flash back to 1997 when KCCA [KCC FC by then] emerged from a similar crisis to win the league title. At the time, a youthful Mike Mutebi was in charge of the club but he developed misunderstandings with his bosses and opted to resign.

It was a curious decision seeing how KCCA were top of the table at the time. KCCA would somehow regroup and go on to win the league title on the final day of the season with Tom Lwanga in charge.

Twenty-six years later, the Lugogo-based club found themselves in a similar predicament after Morley Byekwaso stepped down following Sunday’s 1-0 Uganda Cup defeat to Bright Stars.

Pressure has been mounting on Byekwaso after KCCA suffered a loss of form that resulted in the side dropping six points to Maroons and the league’s lowly sides Blacks Power and UPDF.

While the results have not been forthcoming, fans have also been exasperated by the team’s failure to impose itself on matches.

Ironically, KCCA are firmly still in the hunt for the league title. They have two games in hand on leaders SC Villa and if they picked maximum points from them, the Kasasiro Boys would leapfrog the Jogoos at the summit.

By press time, it was unclear who KCCA were going to appoint to replace Byekwaso. The club hadn’t yet acknowledged receipt of Byekwaso’s resignation but the coach made it clear shortly after Sunday’s loss to Bright Stars that he was stepping down because players had stopped listening to his commands.

KCCA’s squad on paper is blessed with quality and depth but somehow, the team has lost its coherence at the worst possible time of the season. A squad with Denis Iguma, Brian Majwega, Muhammed Shaban, Moses Waiswa, Geoffrey Wasswa and Allan Okello is one blessed with domestic and international experience.

Yet there is a palpable shortage in confidence running through the squad and rival teams have not hesitated to throw the kitchen sink at a team that is clearly a pale shadow of their former selves. But make no mistake; KCCA are still in the hunt for this year’s crown.

Sometimes squads need a new man in the dug out to crack the whip and whoever replaces Byekwaso could well provide the perfect tonic to get the club’s season back on the rails.

KCCA faithful will also do well to note that their next league encounter after is a potential Championship decider against SC Villa at Lugogo.

Maybe Byekwaso’s exit will galvanise the squad and embolden the players to showcase their quality in the home straight of the league Championship. Time will tell. One side that is slowly but surely gathering itself is Vipers.

The games against UPDF, URA and SC Villa will truly test their Championship credentials. Vipers, it is safe to say, rode through their crisis period when Beto Bianchi was in charge and the only way forward for the club is in all likelihood up.