Bright Stars FC assistant coach, Paul Kiwanuka has slammed the ‘suspect and below par’ refereeing by David Oula in their 5-3 loss to Sports Club Villa Jogoo at Nelson Mandela National Stadium, Namboole.
The referee gave away a soft penalty that led to SC Villa’s equalizer and it completely disorganized my team as many players lost concentration. Such acts stand to be condemned in the strongest terms
Bright Stars took the lead after five minutes when Fred Ssegujja connected with John Kokas Opejo’s teasing cross from the right.
Six minutes later, SC Villa were awarded a penalty when Martin Kiiza fell in the area under a slight sliding challenge from defender Suleiman Ssebunza Ssekajja.
Defender Paul Mbowa converted the resultant penalty and the rest as they say is now a history chapter that will be referred to in Uganda.
According to Kiwanuka, who led the Bright Stars’ troops in the absence of head coach Fred Kajoba, who had lost his uncle, the penalty completely ‘put his players off the mark’.
When you concede such a goal, it mentally changes the setting of your players and indeed it did.
We recovered rather too late and the game had run out of our hands.
Kiiza scored a spectacular second, a long-range shot from over 25 yards as the opening half ended 2-1 in favour of the home side.
Three more second half goals from Alex ‘Benzema’ Kitata, a rare Tadeo Lwanga tap-in and Abel Eturude’s icing on the cake wrapped up the game in SC Villa coach, Shafiq Bisaso’s favour.
Bright Stars pulled back two more goals through first half substitute Martin Kivumbi, who had replaced injured skipper Robert Male and a late headed goal from Joshua Kawadwa, another substitute player gave the score line yet another respectable second look.
The Matugga based side dearly missed the services of their skipper Baker Lukooya, Jimmy ‘Kachanga’ Kakooza, goalkeeper Nicholas Ssebwato and intelligent midfielder Methodius Jjungu.
