Mutebi rallies title holders KCCA to push league leaders Vipers to the wire

Kampala.

Reigning Uganda Premier League champions KCCA came close to surrendering their title chase against Bright Stars on Saturday but rode on luck to win 2-1 at Mwererwe.
Bright Stars gallantly stretched KCCA, missing three Hippos stars – Mustapha Kizza, Allan Okello and Julius Poloto – to the limit only for Mike Mutebi’s side to turn to pedigree.
In eight league meetings, KCCA has won six times and drawn twice with Bright Stars.
The hosts’ midfielder Jimmy Kakooza made a half hearted back pass that the defenders fumbled with to allow KCCA forward Paul Mucureezi cross to Derrick Nsimbabi who headed in the first goal on 34 minutes.
KCCA backline, missing suspended skipper Timothy Awany, succeeded in taming Bright Stars’ 15 goal-hero Nelson Ssenkatuuka and it was only after the introduction of lanky Joshua Kawadwa that they started to show cracks. The best moment of the game was created by another substitute Kokas Opejo who received the ball on the right wing on 81minutes, ghosted past four KCCA defenders before unleashing a left strike that left custodian Charles Lukwago chasing shadows.
At 1-1 with nine minutes to go, Bright Stars squandered another scoring chance when playmaker Henry Kiwanuka chose to pass instead of shooting at goal.
They were duly punished seconds later when Mucureezi was brought down near the box in the subsequent KCCA attack and he rose up to curl the free-kick through the wall, past custodian Benson Wagima and into the net on 85 minutes.
“We are still fighting until the end. It was a tough game at an unfriendly venue but we showed character and desire to win,” Mutebi told Daily Monitor. He admitted they missed the quartet of Awany, Okello, Kizza and Poloto.
“With them in the side we would have retained the ball better and been more clinical.
“They are back in Tuesday’s game against Bul and expect us to be a hungrier side in the last two games (they play Police last),” he added.
Second placed KCCA are two points adrift of Vipers and three points better than third place Villa.