The 2025/26 Uganda Premier League season is now into the home-stretch. This week will see the 16 league teams face off on match-day 26, meaning that there will be four more game days left before the championship is won. However, it is in the same week that the first legs of the Stanbic Uganda Cup semi-finals between Kitara and Vipers SC; URA FC and SC Villa will also be played. It is also worth noting, that Vipers, Kitara and SC Villa are the only teams still in with a realistic chance of winning a league and cup double this season, as things stand. But Vipers, who were league and cup champions last season appear to have an edge over the other three, particularly because of their consistency this time round. When they face KCCA FC on Wednesday, April 29 under the floodlights of the MTN Omondi stadium in Lugogo, Vipers will have a seven-point lead over a team with whom they have largely battled for honours over the last decade. Because of that, it is a game that should attract a huge crowd. Firstly, to KCCA, who lost 1-0 to bottom-side Calvary FC in Midigo last weekend, the clash against Vipers is a must- win game. Three points from it keeping their title prospects alive, considering that they would have reduced the gap to four points. The fact that Vipers will still have games against Police, URA, Maroons, and Express to come, any other slip-up would provide a good opportunity for KCCA to close in on the defending champions. Otherwise, a victory in Lugogo for Vipers, as was the case last season, when they ran out 2-0 winners, would not only end KCCA’s ambitions, since the points difference would now be 10, it would equally place the title run-in into an anti-climax. Remember, both Kitara and Villa, the other plausible title challengers are in action this week, too. As expected, they will cancel each other out in one way or the other, which would benefit the Venoms. If Villa win in the Kitara backyard, something they have not done in their previous two visits, they will have a chance of getting into second place on 54 points. The same is true for Kitara. Yet, it would all be more valuable if KCCA beats Vipers. But considering the manner how Vipers have gone about their recent fixtures against their main challengers, is proof of their fortitude as a team. On Sunday, April 26, Vipers brushed aside Entebbe UPPC 3-0 in Kitende. Before then, they held both Villa and Kitara. Abdallah Mubiru, the UPPC coach pointed out one key aspect about Vipers. He said: “The one key attribute of this Vipers team is that they really fight for whatever result they get. But that has a lot to do with the fact that the club’s boss, Lawrence Mulindwa pushes the team through his mentality. He never wants to be second-best. It brushes off his team.” At the end of the first round, Mulindwa offered his team Shs 50 million for finishing that stage top of the league. Mulindwa recently heightened the stakes, when he pledged another bounty of Shs 300 million to his team if they successfully defend their title. Until the boardroom decision by Fufa in January, which saw Vipers lose their game to Kitara by forfeiture, the Venoms are yet to lose a game this season on the field of play. It points to their consistency, but at the same time, that should be incentive enough for KCCA FC. nsimbe.jv@gmail.comThe post KCCA must beat Vipers to give purpose to title run-in appeared first on The Observer.