Marked for Andrey Bondar'
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 43. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match22 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 11‑1 against Strogino, and it could have been more.
Squad24 Aug 2026
4 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match19 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Spartak Tambov scored in the 106th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Market24 Aug 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.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.62 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Andrey Bokovoy takes the afternoon — 8.52
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Andrey Bokovoy provided it, and the 8.52 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Maxim Levin takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 32. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad17 Aug 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 Spartak Tambov this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Spartak Tambov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Andrey Bondar' 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Three points for Spartak Tambov, 2‑1 the final word against Rodina M in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Spartak Tambov have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.64 on the card, and the Spartak Tambov support went home talking about one name.
Market17 Aug 2026
Rodina M are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Spartak Tambov will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad17 Aug 2026
He wheeled away like a man who had been carrying it for months, because he had. Spartak Tambov have their signing off the mark and one press-conference question retired.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Daniil Gurchenko and Spartak Tambov agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Daniil Gurchenko 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrey Bondar', and the manager let it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Spartak Tambov training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Marat Bogdaev 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.