The pivotal games that landed Vipers in seventh heaven

Vipers, last week, secured the 2024/25 StarTimes Uganda Premier League title after overcoming Kitara 2-0 in Hoima.

Gusto Mulongo and Yunus Junior Sentamu scored a goal in either half to guide Vipers to victory. Here are the games that pushed them to the crown. 

Vipers 2-1 SC Villa

One of the biggest decisions made by the Vipers hierarchy was parting with Serbian coach Nikola Kavazovic after only just three games into the campaign.

The game against reigning champions SC Villa was consequently the first for coach John Luyinda Ayala alongside Fred Muhumuza.

Ayala immediately rang the changes, reinstating players in their preferred positions and ditching the three-man defence preferred by Kavazovic that had Yunus Sentamu and Milton Karisa playing as wingbacks.

Sentamu, restored upfront, was one of the scorers alongside Rogers Toorach in a 2-1 win over  Villa at the St. Mary's Stadium.

KCCA 0-2 Vipers

This was the second game of the second round and helped Vipers hit two birds with one stone.

A win for KCCA would have brought them to within 10 points of leaders Vipers but the result instead ended their slim title hopes as it opened up a 16 point advantage over their rivals. 

Yunus Sentamu scored the opener with a fine curling effort before Allan Okello made it an even sweeter win for Vipers fans with the second goal against the club where he started his career.

The result coincided with Nec dropping two valuable points against Police after an Emmanuel Mugume goal in added time canceled out Cromwell Rwothomio's goal. The result helped Vipers open up a three point advantage over Nec.

Vipers 1-0 Lugazi

Vipers have recorded eight 1-0 wins but this victory under the St Mary's Stadium lights on April 3 could arguably have been the most important. It came with eight games to the end of the season and just after the 1-0 loss to SC Villa had threatened to derail their season.

But they dug deep with Karim Watambala breaking Lugazi's resistance on 66 minutes to decide the game. 

Vipers 2-2 Express

Every championship winning team shows elements of character and this was evidenced on a day when Vipers were outhought and outfought particularly in the first half as Express raced into a 2-0 lead.

But the Venoms staged a second half comeback featuring goals by Allan Okello and a Gusto Mulongo tap-in in the final minute of added time to salvage a 2-all draw.

With Nec having won the previous day, the result allowed Vipers to stay two points ahead of their challengers before the teams met in the title decider.

Vipers 3-1 Nec

This was billed as a title decider and came with six games left to the end of the season. It ended with a three-goal first half blitz from Hillary Mukundane, Allan Okello and Isaac Ogwang ending the game as a contest. Paul Mucureezi's penalty was scant consolation.

With that psychological advantage and five point gap opening up, Vipers could even afford the loss to Bul with Nec never truly recovering from that hit and also dropping points at home against Bul.