Reigning champions SC Vipers and SC Villa Jogoo will face off in one of the league’s biggest rivalries in the StarTimes Uganda Premier League on Saturday at St. Mary’s stadium in match day 18.
The reigning champions will be seeking to pile more misery on relegation fighting SC Villa who are just three points above the relegation zone.
Villa will be hoping the league’s top scorer, Bashir Mutanda with 11 goals so far this season, helps them get back to winning ways for the Blues are winless in the past five games since beating Express FC 2-0 in December.
Vipers are second with 37 points, 22 points ahead of 12th-placed SC Villa on the 16-table log.
Some of the key statistics ahead of the game, via the Vipers SC website;
Vipers and SC Villa will be meeting for the 28th time in the league history since 2006 when the Venoms joined the top flight division.
Out of the previous 27 meetings, Vipers has managed 12 wins, 10 draws with only 5 losses having scored 36 goals against 28 in the process.
Osama Farouq Wejuli was the first captain to lead a Vipers team against SC Villa during the 2006 season in a 4-0 loss at Namboole which to date is Vipers’ biggest defeat to the 16 times league champions.
Ronald Muganga is the leading goal scorer in the league encounters between the two giants with 6 goals, he scored 1 goal for SC Villa in the two matches against the Venoms during the 2006 season, likewise, he scored 5 goals for the Kitende based side against the Jogoos in the 9 matches he featured between 2006 to 2012.
Vipers will be seeking a fourth league double victory over SC Villa having won the first round encounter 3-1 at Namboole stadium.
The last meeting at St Marys stadium, ended 1-0 in Vipers favour via a well taken free kick from Tom Masiko to settle an end to end clash which saw Villa fans vandalising property at Kitende leading to a deduction of 2 points as a punishment by the league organisers.
Vipers has lost to SC Villa only twice in the previous 19 league engagements between the two teams since 2009, in the same outings, the Venoms have registered 10 wins and 7 draws.
Vipers SC will clock 34 matches unbeaten if they manage to pick a result off the struggling StartTimes Uganda Premier League record champions.
Vipers has two former SC Villa players in Tadeo Lwanga & Henry Katongole as the would be third Ibrahim Kiyemba is suspended while the Venoms will face six old boys in the SC Villa ranks namely, Ashraf Mandela, Pius Wangi, David Owori, Joseph Semujju, Bashir Mutanda and Shafiq Bakaki if he happens to play.
The game will be played at 4pm, live on Sanyuka TV.
Saturday February 9, 2019:
Vipers SC Vs SC Villa Jogoo – St. Mary’s stadium, Kitende 4pm