Artem Shpyronok

Attacking Midfielder (R) - Kudrivka
11 Jun 2034
Sunday
Process

Marked for Artem Shpyronok

410 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

5 Jun 2034
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Oleksandr Bieliaiev damages knee ligaments — 93 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 93 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

Štěpán Kadlec breaks a bone — 64 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 64 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Market

Mykhailo Kulyk has one foot out of the door

Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Kudrivka they have already started talking about him in the past tense.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.

Boardroom

Kudrivka agree a free transfer for Ihor Hrybenyk

Nothing happens for months and then he simply arrives, at no cost, having signed a pre-contract while still turning out for somebody else. It is the least dramatic way to sign a footballer and frequently the shrewdest.

Squad

Artem Shpyronok 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.

Boardroom

$2.0M on the table at Kudrivka

The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.

Market

Kudrivka sign Richard Nazarov, one for the future

Richard Nazarov is 20, and Kudrivka have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.

Market

A long bet from Kudrivka on Yevhen Tsygankov

He is 19, and nobody at Kudrivka signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.

In brief

Back issues
405 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

1 May 2034
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Oleksandr Bieliaiev in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Artem Shpyronok 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.

Squad

Mykhailo Kulyk has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Kudrivka will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

395 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

20 Feb 2034
From our football correspondent Crisis

Market

Axel Vertonghen asks to leave Kudrivka

“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.

Squad

Oleksii Khakhliov out for 37 days

The medical room confirms 37 days on the sidelines for Oleksii Khakhliov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.

Player ratings

Artem Shpyronok ran the middle of the pitch — 6.77

He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 13 combined actions and a mark of 6.77, and not one of them will make a highlights package.

Squad

Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykhailo Kulyk 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.

Match

Metalurh Zaporizhzhia take the points off Kudrivka

Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.

In brief

394 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

13 Feb 2034
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Kudrivka are in among the leaders

Position 1 and 59 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Match

The run at home goes on for Kudrivka

15 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.

Market

Poltava come back empty-handed

The bid was some way short and Kudrivka did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.

Player ratings

Artem Shpyronok has a hand in both — 7.94

One scored and one made, which is a different afternoon from scoring twice and an easier one to overlook. Marked 7.94, and involved in 2 of his side's goals.

Squad

Oleksandr Bieliaiev in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Vido Marković sends Kudrivka past Poltava

It finished 2‑1, and it was Vido Marković’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Kudrivka.

Market

The Alban Taipi conversation is coming

Everyone has stopped pretending: Nyva will make the call about Alban Taipi this week. Kudrivka have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.

Squad

Kudrivka count the cost of losing Ihor Haiduchok

20 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.

Squad

Séga Sanogo signs a new deal

“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Séga Sanogo commits to Kudrivka for another 3 years.

In brief

391 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

23 Jan 2034
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Mykhailo Kulyk keeps Kudrivka in it on his own

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.

Market

Axel Vertonghen asks to leave Kudrivka

“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.

Squad

Oleksii Khakhliov out for 65 days

The medical room confirms 65 days on the sidelines for Oleksii Khakhliov, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.

Squad

Oleksandr Bieliaiev gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

Kudrivka come up short against Podillia

Podillia left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

In brief

389 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

9 Jan 2034
From our football correspondent Triumph

Player ratings

Both of them Artem Liehostaiev's — 8.95

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.95, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Squad

Artem Liehostaiev is carrying Kudrivka

23 goals and a season average of 7.36. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Match

Kudrivka make home a hard place to visit

13 without defeat on their own grass. The pitch has not changed; the crowd has — louder earlier, and quicker to sense when the opposition would rather be somewhere else.

Match

Kudrivka cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

Štěpán Kadlec keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Dmytro Shynkarenko stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Dmytro Shynkarenko and Kudrivka agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.

Match

Kudrivka see off Victoriia Sumy

Three points for Kudrivka, 3‑1 the final word against Victoriia Sumy in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Boardroom

Kudrivka beat the market to Boris Ivanov from Polissia

Polissia will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Boris Ivanov has pre-agreed a move to Kudrivka, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.

In brief

384 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

5 Dec 2033
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

14 unbeaten for Kudrivka

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 14 matches without defeat is a foundation Kudrivka did not have in the autumn.

Match

Artem Liehostaiev settles it late for Kudrivka

The 87th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Artem Liehostaiev decided nobody was going anywhere. Probiy had no time left to answer.

Squad

3 goals for Artem Liehostaiev

The match ball belongs to Artem Liehostaiev, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.

Squad

Axel Vertonghen keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Artem Liehostaiev is carrying Kudrivka

17 goals and a season average of 7.23. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.

Squad

Vido Marković stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Vido Marković and Kudrivka agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

In brief

381 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

14 Nov 2033
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Caio Emerson leads the rout of Ahrobiznes

4‑1, and Caio Emerson took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Kudrivka tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

A brace, and Caio Emerson takes the afternoon — 8.19

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Caio Emerson provided it, and the 8.19 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Match

Still nobody has beaten Kudrivka

The unbeaten run reaches 11. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.

Player ratings

Oleksandr Bieliaiev, 34, rolls back the years — 8.20

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 34, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.

Squad

Words at Kudrivka training over how hard people work

Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykhailo Kulyk 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.

Match

Caio Emerson at the heart of a fast Kudrivka start

3 goals inside twenty minutes with Caio Emerson in the middle of it, and Ahrobiznes unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Artem Liehostaiev

Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Squad

Danylo Basovskyi has become a man the manager trusts

Nobody at Kudrivka will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.

In brief

378 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

24 Oct 2033
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Match

Artem Liehostaiev leads the rout of Feniks

4‑0, and Artem Liehostaiev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Kudrivka tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Match

Kudrivka are in among the leaders

Position 2 and 25 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.

Player ratings

Artem Liehostaiev scores twice — 8.68

Two goals and a mark of 8.68 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.

Market

Mykhailo Kulyk is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kudrivka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Player ratings

Vido Marković, 33, rolls back the years — 7.85

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.85 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Match

Whatever happens, Kudrivka do not lose

8 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Mykhailo Kulyk 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Myroslav Serdiuk 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.

Player ratings

A defender's afternoon for Danylo Basovskyi

Defensive actions: 19. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.

In brief

376 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

10 Oct 2033
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Player ratings

Age has not caught Oleksandr Bieliaiev yet — 8.06

At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.06 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Match

6 unbeaten for Kudrivka

Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Kudrivka did not have in the autumn.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Myroslav Serdiuk 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Artem Shpyronok

Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Match

Kudrivka see off Podillia

Three points for Kudrivka, 1‑0 the final word against Podillia in a contest settled by the finer margins.

Squad

Alban Taipi 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.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Alban Taipi

“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.

Squad

Yevhen Kocherhin signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yevhen Kocherhin and Kudrivka agree another 3 years.

Market

Mykhailo Protasevych linked with a move away

The name of Mykhailo Protasevych keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kudrivka say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

372 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

12 Sep 2033
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A fracture rules Oleksii Khakhliov out for 26 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kudrivka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

Cruel end for Livyi Bereh as Kudrivka pounce

There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Kudrivka scored in the 91th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Mykhailo Kulyk

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.

Market

Alban Taipi attracts admirers

The name of Alban Taipi has come up in conversations Kudrivka were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Squad

Oleksandr Bieliaiev in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Squad

Mykhailo Kulyk 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.

Match

Kudrivka find a way past Livyi Bereh

Livyi Bereh made Kudrivka work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Player ratings

The afternoon belonged to Artem Liehostaiev

A mark of 7.80, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.

Market

Mykhailo Protasevych linked with a move away

The name of Mykhailo Protasevych keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Kudrivka say nothing, which says plenty.

In brief

371 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

5 Sep 2033
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Mykhailo Kulyk

There were 11 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.

Squad

A fracture rules Oleksii Khakhliov out for 33 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kudrivka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

Kudrivka out of the cup

Karpaty ended it 0‑1. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.

Match

Kudrivka run riot against UCSA

3‑0, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.

Player ratings

Both of them Artem Liehostaiev's — 9.14

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.14, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Market

Kudrivka say no — this time

The offer from Vorskla for Mykhailo Kulyk was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Squad

Alban Taipi says Kudrivka went back on their word

“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.

Squad

Oleksii Khakhliov signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Oleksii Khakhliov and Kudrivka agree another 2 years.

Market

Victoriia Sumy watching Samuel Nicodemos Bernhed

The interest is real enough to have reached print. Kudrivka have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.

In brief

370 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

29 Aug 2033
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A fracture rules Oleksii Khakhliov out for 40 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kudrivka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

Oleksandr Bieliaiev in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

Whatever happens, Kudrivka do not lose

6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Market

Vorskla are about to pick up the phone

A conversation is coming this week. Kudrivka will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.

Match

Kudrivka get the job done against Bukovyna

A 2‑0 win over Bukovyna, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Artem Shpyronok

Marked 8.10 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Squad

The manager makes an example of Alban Taipi

“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.

Squad

Axel Vertonghen 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.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Oleksandr Bieliaiev

Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

In brief

368 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

15 Aug 2033
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

Danylo Basovskyi damages knee ligaments — 15 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 15 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

A fracture rules Oleksii Khakhliov out for 54 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kudrivka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Match

8 matches without a win for Kudrivka

The run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Kudrivka are no longer polite ones.

Player ratings

A brace, and Artem Liehostaiev takes the afternoon — 8.50

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Artem Liehostaiev provided it, and the 8.50 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Squad

Real improvement from Markel Vega at Kudrivka

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Markel Vega is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

Squad

Oleksandr Bieliaiev in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

6 goals as Kudrivka and Chernihiv go for it

Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Kudrivka and Chernihiv, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.

Market

The Mykhailo Kulyk conversation is coming

Everyone has stopped pretending: Probiy will make the call about Mykhailo Kulyk this week. Kudrivka have a number in mind, and the number is not shy.

Match

Kudrivka share the spoils with Chernihiv

A 3‑3 draw with Chernihiv leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.

In brief

366 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

1 Aug 2033
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Danylo Basovskyi

29 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kudrivka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Squad

Oleksii Khakhliov breaks a bone — 68 days out

Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.

Match

Kudrivka throw away a 2-goal lead

2 in front and in complete control, and it finished with Ahrobiznes the happier side. There is no version of this afternoon that Kudrivka will enjoy reviewing.

Market

Kudrivka say no — this time

The offer from UCSA for Mykhailo Kulyk was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.

Match

No end in sight to Kudrivka's wait for a win

6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Kudrivka has to find a result from somewhere.

Player ratings

Age has not caught Vido Marković yet — 8.13

At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.13 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.

Market

Dmytro Myronenko is on his way

The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Kudrivka is pretending he will be back in the shirt.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.

Boardroom

7 academy players handed senior numbers at Kudrivka

The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.

In brief

329 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

15 Nov 2032
From our football correspondent Uneasy

The terraces

The mood at Kudrivka has turned into something else

Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.

Squad

A fracture rules Vladyslav Shapoval out for 122 days

Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Kudrivka will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Myronenko

42 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kudrivka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Match

Artem Shpyronok breaks Rukh hearts

Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Artem Shpyronok scored in the 86th minute, Rukh had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Kudrivka took the lot.

Squad

Harold Sandoval keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Kudrivka may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.

Match

Kudrivka find a way past Rukh

Rukh made Kudrivka work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Volodymyr Kvikvinia

At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Player ratings

Artem Shpyronok takes the honours

Marked 7.64 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Kudrivka had the best player on the pitch.

In brief

328 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

8 Nov 2032
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Myronenko

49 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kudrivka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

Kudrivka put Interim Coach on notice

The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.

Match

The small margins put Kudrivka out

Out, 2‑4 to Dynamo Kyiv, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.

Market

Danylo Tuzenko puts it in writing

“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Kudrivka, and it is not being withdrawn.

Player ratings

Bartosz Jaroch, 37, rolls back the years — 7.80

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.80 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Dmytro Shynkarenko signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Dmytro Shynkarenko and Kudrivka agree another 2 years.

Squad

Oleksandr Bieliaiev in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Kudrivka this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

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 Kudrivka and Dynamo Kyiv in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.

Match

Kudrivka come up short against Kolos

Kolos left with the points after a 0‑1 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

In brief

327 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

1 Nov 2032
From our football correspondent Crisis

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Myronenko

56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kudrivka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Boardroom

The silence upstairs is getting loud at Kudrivka

Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.

Match

Every point is an argument now for Kudrivka

Position 14 and 10 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.

Squad

A one-man rearguard from Mykhailo Kulyk

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 ratings

Oleksandr Bieliaiev, 33, rolls back the years — 7.81

There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.81 at 33, and nobody on the pitch was better.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Kudrivka against Metalist

1‑3 to Metalist, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

Squad

Artem Shpyronok 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.

Player ratings

Séga Sanogo turns it into his own net

Nobody's fault and entirely his: a goal that goes into the book with his name against it and nothing about it intended. Kudrivka deserved better, and so did he.

In brief

319 Edition

The Kudrivka Sentinel

6 Sep 2032
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

A knee injury of the worst kind for Dmytro Myronenko

112 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Kudrivka lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.

Player ratings

A brace, and Oleksandr Bieliaiev takes the afternoon — 8.31

There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Oleksandr Bieliaiev provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.

Market

Bartosz Jaroch hands in a written request

“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Kudrivka can pretend not to have heard.

Squad

Tempers go at Kudrivka

Oleksandr Bieliaiev 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.

Match

Kudrivka find a way past Polissia

Polissia made Kudrivka work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.

Squad

Artem Shpyronok gets it from the manager

“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.

Match

Oleksandr Bieliaiev answers Polissia immediately

Conceding is one thing; the response is what tells you about a dressing room. Oleksandr Bieliaiev had Kudrivka level again within 3 minutes, and Polissia never got to play with a lead at all.

Squad

Artem Liehostaiev named in the team of the month

A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Artem Liehostaiev is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.

Market

The Oleksandr Bieliaiev story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Oleksandr Bieliaiev signs something — a contract at Kudrivka or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

In brief