Maroons coach Asaph Mwebaze admitted their opponents Onduparaka were the hungrier side of the two on Saturday as Maroons went down 2-0 in their first home game this season.
Ceaser Okhuti banged a second half brace to hand the Caterpillars their first win of the new campaign while subjecting Maroons who troubled defending champions KCCA in their barren draw on the opening day of the season their first defeat of the campaign and only their first home loss since losing 4-1 to SC Villa in May 2015.
Defender Allan Anguyo was at fault for both goals, with the most notable error the second when he failed to control the ball from his goalkeeper Emmanuel Akol, gifting Okhuti who was facing an empty net his second goal of the season and Onduparaka’s second.
“The game was difficult on our side,” Mwebaze who had hoped to build on their encouraging draw against KCCA said.
“We gave away two very silly goals that we couldn’t have given away. The first one we could have put out for a corner kick, we didn’t. Then the second one we started and gave them the ball.
“Not wanting to put blame on players but both goals were mistakes by the same player. The first goal he fights with the defender instead of putting it away for a corner kick and we conceded.
“The second goal he receives the ball, instead of playing it back to the goalkeeper if he’s under pressure, he tries to control it. There are two schoolboy mistakes. Hopefully he can recover from that and we rectify the mistakes and when we play URA we’ll probably put up a better performance.
“But generally we didn’t give enough to win the game. They got a result that they deserved. They wanted it more than us and they got the result.”
Maroons had KCCA’s goalkeeper Charles Lukwago deny them a perfect start to the campaign last Tuesday, with Mike Mutebi’s side suffering a barrage of attacks, but that was not the case against Onduparaka,
The Prisons side barely created chances, and goalkeeper Nicholas Ssebwato was hardly tested. Mwebaze, however, defended his forwards.
He said: “We don’t have to shoot at goal as long as we can create chances. We got some opportunities. [William] Wadri went one on one in the first half, that could’ve been a goal but he didn’t take the chance. In the second half, we got half chances, but the whole point is that the turning point is when we gave away the goals. The other team gets the courage and yours is depleted. A game at 0-0 can swing to either direction. We gave them the goals and they took their opportunities.”
The result dropped Maroons to the bottom of the table while sending Onduparaka to the second position with four points.