Ethiopia Coffee target derby win over St George

The 48th "Sheger derby" is upon us, as Ethiopia Coffee target back-to-back wins over eternal rivals St George.

The Ethiopian Premier League Week 29 matches continue this Saturday with two games.

However, the star attraction will only have pride at stake as St George and Ethiopia Coffee are both out of title contention.

Ethiopia Coffee are currently in fourth place on 50 points, while St George are fifth with 44 points.

Both sides are playing under their second coaches this season.

Ethiopia Coffee seemed to have benefitted more from the coaching change than the "Horsemen" with a sensational run that brought them to the brink of the title race.

St George, on the other hand, uncharacteristically fell off the wagon  after starting the season like a house on fire.

They were top of the table for most of the first round but they suffered their first defeat of the season at the hands of Bahir Dar City in the sixth week.

They had an impressive start -- picking up 13 out of the first 15 possible points from the first five weeks.

They then went another six weeks without defeat.

However, the wheels came off when they could only win one game from week 19-28, and that was against Sidama Coffee.

They have 12 wins, eight draws and eight defeats and that's a poor return for a team that dominated the last two seasons winning back-to-back titles.

THIRD SPOT BECKONS FOR COFFEE

Ethiopia Coffee started the season with Serbian coach Nikola Kavazovic with impressive pre-season results.

They started off with two wins and a draw in their first three games, but after the fourth week, their struggles started and it stretched to the seventh week without a win.

That winless streak led to Coffee parting ways with the Serbian coach and the appointment of Netsanet Kibre as his replacement.

His first match was the reverse fixture of the "Sheger derby" against St George Kedus which Coffee won by a lone goal scored by Chala Teshitas.

Coffee subsequently went undefeated for the next eight weeks, winning five games and drawing three.

The team became a nightmare for their opponents, especially taking points away from the top two title contenders, Ethiopia Nigd Bank and Mekelakeya in consecutive fixtures.

They are coming into this penultimate fixture on the back of another impressive winning run of five matches where they scored 16 goals and conceded only four.

If Ethiopia Coffee get three points from St George, they will certainly finish the season in third place.

St George also have a chance to finish third but will hope for Bahir Dar City to lose games.

This will be the teams 48th meeting in the Premier League era, with St George boasitng 18 wins, 21 draws and eight losses.

The other match of the day pitches Fasil City against Wolaitta Dicha with Fasil looking for consecutive wins after beating Shashemene City 2-1 last week.

The Emperors have 43 points and are in seventh place with Wolaitta Dicha in 13th position with 33 points.

Wolaitta Dicha have had poor league form, winning only one of their last six games but have surprisingly qualified for the Ethiopian Cup final.