Marked for Vadym Pidlepych
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match2 Jan 2027
The wait goes on for Poltava
11 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad4 Jan 2027
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Market4 Jan 2027
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Match2 Jan 2027
Poltava cannot find the net
6 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Poltava
Valerii Voskonyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Mykola Buzhyn falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The team sheet said everything about Maksym Marusych
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Maksym Marusych.
Player ratings4 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Poltava's wait for a win
10 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Poltava has to find a result from somewhere.
Match26 Dec 2026
Nowhere to hide for Poltava
0‑6 against LNZ, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market28 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Match26 Dec 2026
Poltava cannot find the net
5 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad28 Dec 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Poltava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match26 Dec 2026
Nobody could stop scoring
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Poltava and LNZ in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Poltava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykola Buzhyn is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Beaten 6 times, 4 saves, and an afternoon that will go on his record whether it was his fault or the defence’s. It is the quiet unfairness of the position.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Nobody left the Poltava dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Dec 2026
No end in sight to Poltava's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Poltava has to find a result from somewhere.
Market7 Dec 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Poltava
Valerii Voskonyan and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Yevhen Misiura falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Match5 Dec 2026
Metalist left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Daniil Yermolov and Poltava agree another 4 years.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mykhailo Burda after 0‑2, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match26 Oct 2026
Poltava are in real trouble now
Position 16, 3 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market26 Oct 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad26 Oct 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Poltava will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Valerii Voskonyan was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match24 Oct 2026
Kudrivka left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad26 Oct 2026
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Mykhailo Burda after 0‑1, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Vladyslav Danylenko falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match3 Oct 2026
11 matches without a win for Poltava
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Poltava are no longer polite ones.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Poltava will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Market5 Oct 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Poltava can pretend not to have heard.
Squad5 Oct 2026
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Poltava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match3 Oct 2026
Poltava leaking at the back
4 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑3 defeat, delivered by Mykhailo Burda to a room that had heard them before.