Soana FC head coach Charles Ayiekoh has opted to take early precaution before his side takes on a tricky Onduparaka FC in the quarter finals of the Uganda cup on Thursday in Arua.
Among the tough decisions the coach made included dropping four players from his previous squad that drew 3-3 with Villa on Friday.
Francis Olaki remained behind due to what was termed as family issues, and his place taken up by Dan Sewava. Eddie Ruhweza went missing from training while Ahmed Sebagala is out for tactical reasons.
Rahmat Kagimu and Siraje Turyamureeba were slotted into the team that has already arrived in Arua.
Onduparaka earned promotion into the topflight last Saturday after thumping Sporting United 3-0 and replicated the result on Busia Fisheries two days later to qualify for this stage of the cup.
The Arua prodigies had earlier on eliminated Uganda cup defending champions SC Villa through penalties after a barren draw in Nakivubo a fortnight ago. It is for this reason that the Soana coach is taking the match with the urgency required.
“My team must play like it’s a cup final and that, said I am not going to entertain laziness in the pitch. We shall approach them (Onduparaka) with care just like a super division (AUPL) team since they’re now promoted,” Ayiekoh said.
Soana have not had the smoothest route to this stage needing penalty luck to eliminate lower division side Free Stars (Mukono) and BUL FC both in the rounds of 64 and 16. Their only victory inside normal time came in last 32 when they beat Wandegeya 2-1 away.
The match will be played at the Green light stadium from 4pm.
Winner faces Entebbe FC in a two leg semifinals clash. The other semifinals pits KCCA FC against Vipers.
The champion of the Uganda cup competition represents the country in the coveted Caf confederations cup.