Former Pamba and Mbale Heroes striker, Ibrahim Maruti was one of the most delighted gentlemen after his team, CRO rallied from a goal down to pick a point over Rwenzori log leaders, The Saints F.C at the dusty Mbale Municipal Stadium on Thursday.
Muhammed Kasirye’s rare left footed effort a minute after the opening half hour mark had given the visitors the command against the run of play.
CRO, who lost the corresponding first round via a ‘painful board room decision’ fought gallantly until the 65th minute of the game when Raymond Katuri brought them level – much to the delight of the lively home crowd.
CRO’s Kelvin Kato (14) was a menace to The Saints right back, Denis Rukundo (2) particularly in the opening stanza of the action packed game.
The two sides created several scoring opportunities although suspect finishing, a national disease by far for all the teams remained their biggest undergoing.
Fred Kyambadde and second half substitute, Bukenya Kitata came closet for The Saints whilst Kato Kelvin and David Zaake were the main culprits for the home team.
Maruti is still bitter for the first round points his team lost in what he terms a dubious manner, fuming;
When we got a mechanical problem along the way, and failed to reach Namboole on time, FUFA never heard our case and they demanded U.shs 1M from us, which was very unfair. Since we could not afford the money, we lost the points but today, we proved, we could have even picked the three points then
His counterpart at The Saints F.C, Mark Twinamatisko cast the blame game on ‘suspect refereeing decisions’ and the obvious failure by his charges to convert the chances created.
The two coaches, Ibrahim Maruti (left) and Mark Twinamatisko (center) had different thoughts throughout prior, during and after the fixture of the well attended match.
Elsewhere, the 0-1 away victory for Jinja Municipal at Hope Doves reduced The Saints lead from 7 to 5 with several rounds of play to come.
Lira’s Sporting United picked a precious away point from the barren draw against struggling Water F.C at Mengo S.S meanwhile Ndejje University stormed to a 2-1 home win over Ngora Freda Carr.
There were tears and joy at the Uganda Prisons stadium in Luzira.
Delight for the visitors, Kirinya/Jinja S.S whose striker James Otim notched a priceless last gasp equalizer after Hood Muliki had given Maroons a first half lead after 22 minutes.
Kireka United drew 1 all with Kasese New Villa at Kira Town Council play ground.
No Shows:
For reasons not forwarded to the organizing committee of the FUFA Big league, Kumi United failed to travel to Zombo for a date against Paidha Black Angels F.C.
In the same vein, Busia United did not step at the Entebbe road based Taibah play grounds for the match against Artland Katale, owned by the comical lawyer, Muhammed Bazirenggedde.
The FUFA Competitions committee will determine the fate of the affected teams as soon as possible and deliberate on the award of points if any.
Mwebe, the FUFA IT and competitions official told Kawowo Sports.
The Thursday, 5th March 2015 FUFA Big league results:
Rwenzori Group:
CRO FC 1- 1 The Saints FC
Water FC 0-0 Sporting Utd
Ndejje Univ 2-1 Ngora Freda Carr
Hope Doves 0-1 JMC FC
Elgon Group:
VCC 0-0 Synergy
Maroons 1 –1 Kirinya Jinja SS
Kireka United 1-1 Kasese New Villa
Next Big league Matches:
Sunday,8th March 2015:
Wandegeya Vs Proline – Kitezzi
Cream land Vs Masaka L.C – Kabale Municipal Stadium
Hope Doves Vs Ngora Freda Carr – Nakivubo Stadium
