Villa host Bright Stars with hope of turning around underwhelming season

Uganda Premier League record champions SC Villa host Bright Stars at the Mandela National Stadium on Wednesday, with a chance to leapfrog Maroons into 12th.

The Jogoo head coach Douglas Bamweyana continues to be disappointed with his side’s failure to turn dominance into results but came out to hail the performance and attitude of his players after their 1-0 loss to Uganda Revenue Authority, a game he believes Villa deserved more than what they got.

“The better team lost on the day, We Created the most chances but we conceded a scruffy goal and then failed to score. But overall, I am happy with the boys,” Bamweyana commented after their previous game.

The frustration, however, does not stop with only the head coach. With fans visibly becoming impatient with their side’s struggles, the growing frustration was shown at the final whistle after fans attacked Vipers media officer for what they called continued abuses against their club.

Despite Villa signing 14 players during the January transfer window, they could only afford four substitutes on the bench with the rest of the players still not cleared to play. And Bamweyana promised that the real picture of which Villa should be judged will be visible against Bright Stars.

“We missed some players last time and that means there is still a lot of work to do but I think the true picture of the team will be seen in our next game”. Bamweyana asserted.

Villa have had an underwhelming season winning just two games thus far with the loss to URA their sixth loss of the season. They have drawn nine games of their 17 league games so far with their last win coming on November 30 against Nyamityobora.

The visitors, Bright Stars also do have their own struggles as they will be without head coach Fred Kajoba who is serving a four game suspension but his assistant Peter Kiwanuka showed a good account of himself against Onduparaka.

The Stars failed to safe guard their 1- 0 first half lead as Onduparaka equalized to pick up a point as they continued their struggles failing to win since December, losing and drawing three of their next six league games since their 3-0 win against Paidha Black Angels.

Said Keni, Sulaiman Majanjalo, Asuman Alishe are the only January acquisitions that made the match day squad against URA. But with the acquisition of the required paperwork, Emanuel Kalyowa, Adriko John, Yakubu Rama and South Sudanese Dusuman Peter all in line for their debuts for their new club.

However, much attention will be between SC Villa forward Bashir Mutanda who is the joint league top scorer with 10 goals and Albert Mugisa who will run the show in the middle.

Bright Stars charge will be headed by Captain Nelson Senkatuka who heads the club’s top scoring charts with seven goals. The experienced goalkeeper Hamza Muwonge, Mahad Kisekka, Dan Birikwalira and Brian Kayanja will all pose questions for Villa.

The last three meetings between these two have ended in stalemates but Villa boast the upper hand winning twice and losing once against the Stars. The 5-3 win by SC Villa in November 2016 remains the biggest win in this fixture.