Africa-Press – Uganda. Ibrahim Buwembo used to drink Coffee, which made some people say he played for Coffee Football Club. He also used to fly with the Cranes, which made some people say he played for Uganda Cranes.
But Buwembo really played for Express. At Wankulukuku, visiting defenders and goalkeepers saw vicious Red talons where Express fans saw Buwembo’s sweet left foot.
Such was the torment Ibrahim Buwembo rained on opponents.
At Wankulukuku on Saturday, Vipers supremo Lawrence Mulindwa could have sworn he saw Buwembo compound his headache even as the legendary left-winger was being laid to rest some 70km away in Buwama.
It was Isma Kawawulo who struck first on 37 minutes before Isaac Wagoina ensured the points on 76 minutes to leave Mulindwa wondering if it is time to sell the club itself.
Nothing has been going forward for former Express diehard Mulindwa as his Venoms plummeted from semlling the top of the table just last week to fourth place after 13 games.
Vipers agonizingly find themselves eight points adrift of leaders Bul with 24 points. Their last win goes back four matches. Then, it was only thanks to assistant referee Juma Osire, who chalked off Kitara’s injury time equaliser with a flag that only he knew why he had raised.
Osire was handed a six-month ban for his attempt to help a team that has been as helpless as a duck abandoned in a desert.
A draw away to Maroons in Luzira followed by two defeats on the bounce against Bul and Express has left fans wary that Mulindwa could just abandon the club altogether.
Mulindwa does not wear hats but if he did, he would be pulling out the hat itself having pulled out all the tricks he can already.
After Bul ended not just their right to the top with 3-2 win at Kitende, Mulindwa was so hurt that it was not just the right to the top he had been denied but also the fact that his team had been utterly undone at home for the first time since 2021.
He furiously kicked out Brazilian Coach Leonard Martins Neiva who, results suggest, had been drawing salary by false pretense for six months.
He then asked some Kifeesi to ensure Congolese assistant coach Lukusa Kayembe was frog-marched all the way to Lubumbashi with instructions to never show up at St Mary’s again.
Finally, Mulindwa pulled one trick off his unseen hat. He instructed Brazilian-cum-Portuguese coach Jose Esdras Costa Lopez to take charge of the dugout.
But after the Venoms saw a mirage of Buwembo in Wankulukuku in their 2-0 defeat on Saturday, Mulindwa might be so hurt that he will want to buy a real hat before results haunt him into selling Vipers.
The last time he made a trick that worked, Alex Isabirye, the very man who made him see the dead at Wankulukuku, was leading Bul to a dream title charge. Mulindwa yanked him off with promises of better edible oil than what Bidco produces.
Isabirye fell for Mulindwa’s charm and the marriage yielded a first twin for the Venoms, It looked like a marriage made in heaven but there is no heaven in Kitende – only Mulindwa lives there.
Isabirye was kicked where it hurts most and although he appears to have recovered after limping for months, he still talks about Vipers and Mulindwa like the heartbreak is raw.
With Bul threatening to run away with the title, Mulindwa could run desperate and attempt the Isabirye marital trick on Abbey Kikomeko – if he does not run away from Vipers anyway.
To defeat your rival, you have to cripple them first, says the martial arts law.
Vipers next face the National Enterprise Corporation (Nec) on Wednesday but it remains unclear if Mulindwa will go into a potential third-straight defeat against the military franchise or call for a timeout.
Yes, a timeout. It does not happen in football but we have seen a semblance of one not long ago when Vipers sued for their league game to be postponed. It could happen again.
Out of Venoms and with no trick to slither around anymore, only an overgrown St Mary’s turf could help a snake’s tricks but Kitende is art-turf and silicon does not grow.
Mulindwa will have to face Nec with the possibility of losing three on the bounce dreadfully real. Sadly, Osire will not be there either.
Meanwhile, Charles Lwanga struck at the stroke of the hour to help record league winners SC Villa edge Wakiso Giants in Kavumba while Maroons made the dreaded Luzira Prison Grounds look like a bed of landmines as visiting Soldier Boys of Gaddafi could only see sparks fly in the air.
The 5-0 thumping victory helped the Prison Warders to third place with 25 points from 13 games.
Gaddafi left Luzira for home in Jinja feeling the heat of dangling precariously above the drop zone with 13 points. Their only consolation will be that Mbarara City and Wakiso Giants are in the same rickety boat with 13 points.
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