Africa-Press – Uganda. Fazila Ikwaput is in scintillating form and that should be worrying for any opponents in the Fufa Women Super League that is running at the Fufa Technical Centre – Njeru. The 23-year old forward scored her sixth and seventh goal at the shortened FWSL yesterday as Lady Doves beat Uganda Christian University (UCU) Lady Cardinals 2-1.
UCU turned out in purple tops that paled in the morning’s chilly weather and against Doves’ bright blue jersey.
Even with reigning league MVP Hasifah Nassuna in their ranks, UCU’s overall display was as uninspired as their jerseys. But after a period of no serious dominance from either side, UCU won a freekick in the 18th minute that Shadia Nankya delivered well enough to force Doves’ Rashida Nankya into fouling Harriet Muwugumya.
Account open
Nassuna converted the resulting penalty to open her account for the season and make it to 89 league goals since 2014. Doves too had such a moment 12 minutes later when their pressing allowed them to stop UCU and deliver a long ball that neither Ruth Aturo and Nankya took responsibility for.
Ikwaput – hungry for goals – pounced, knocked the ball out of Aturo’s reach and rolled it home for the equalizer.
Doves got better control of proceedings from then and were rewarded for it deep in the second half when Nankya fouled Ikwaput in the 75th minute.
Ikwaput made no mistake as she kept Doves top of Group Two with seven points and in-line with their intentions to do one better than the 2018/19 term, where they lost 2-0 in the finals to surrender the then top flight Fufa Women Elite League (FWEL) title to UCU.
Good memories
However, the last time Ikwaput was scoring for fun like this, she led Olila High School to their only title in the inaugural Fufa Women Cup in 2017.
That year, she was crowned Airtel-Fufa Female Footballer of the Year then went on, in 2018, to represent India’s Gokulam Kerala and Uefa Champions League outfit BIIK-Kazygurt, for whom she scored once against Barcelona.
She returned towards the end of the year and joined Lady Doves, where she has already made clear of her intentions “to win the league and finish as top scorer.”
She is on course as she leads the charts, with four goals more than Kawempe’s Allen Nassazi and Fauzia Najjemba, whose Kampala Queens side did not progress to the playoffs.
“It is wonderful to have such a player that you can rely on and is willing to uplift the team when things are not going well,” Rajab Buyinza, Doves’ assistant coach, said. “UCU scored first and we needed resilience and endurance to stick by our game plan. And I want to thank the players for doing that so well,” he added. Meanwhile, Grace Aluka – playing in an unfamiliar forward role – scored twice as her new side Olila beat Isra Academy 3-0 to go second in Group Two. Docus Arakit scored their other goal.
