Marked for Stepan Pravkin
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market28 Dec 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 ratings28 Dec 2026
Daniil Grada, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.62
A mark of 7.62 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
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 Rotor 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces28 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gleb Shilnikov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Match26 Dec 2026
It finished 1‑0, and it was Daniil Grada’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Rotor 2.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Pogudin 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
“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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 39. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market9 Nov 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 Rotor 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Match7 Nov 2026
6 matches without a win for Rotor 2
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Rotor 2 are no longer polite ones.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Rotor 2 may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match7 Nov 2026
Still nobody has beaten Rotor 2
The unbeaten run reaches 8. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad9 Nov 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 Rotor 2 this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Maxim Khramtsov
“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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Rotor 2 make home a hard place to visit
8 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Alexey Pogudin 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market2 Nov 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alexey Pogudin 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.
Squad2 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Stepan Pravkin
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market21 Sep 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 Rotor 2 can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Sergey Prokofjev 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ivan Litvenok 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.
The terraces21 Sep 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gleb Shilnikov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad21 Sep 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.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 18. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
A mark of 7.56, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market31 Aug 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 Rotor 2 can pretend not to have heard.
The terraces31 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Yegor Tarin
At 21 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.
Match29 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yegor Tarin. 1‑0 against Salyut, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad31 Aug 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.
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Some games turn on a moment; this one turned on a man. 7.41 on the card, and the Rotor 2 support went home talking about one name.
From our football correspondent
Steady
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
A defender's goal wins it for Rotor 2 — 7.82
1 for Gleb Shilnikov, marked 7.82, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
The terraces24 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Gleb Shilnikov has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Batyr Umirov
“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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Rotor 2 training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitry Loktev 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Yegor Tarin dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
Match22 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Alexey Pogudin knocks on the manager's door
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Rotor 2, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Market24 Aug 2026
It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Sergey Prokofjev signs something — a contract at Rotor 2 or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.