Mark Isong

Striker - Irtysh
6 Dec 2026
Sunday
Process

Marked for Mark Isong

12 Edition

The Irtysh Chronicle

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

13 matches without a win for Irtysh

The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Irtysh are no longer polite ones.

Player ratings

Giovanni Farneti beats them one at a time

Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.

Squad

Alexandr Smirnov 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 Irtysh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Match

The goals have deserted Irtysh

3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Irtysh can tell you which week it ends in.

Squad

Dmitry Khokhlov 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

Irtysh come up short against Torpedo Miass

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

The dugout

No hiding place for Aznaur Geryugov

“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aznaur Geryugov, and the manager let it.

The dugout

Denis Kuzin: “No excuses”

“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.

The dugout

Mark Isong asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

In brief

Back issues
11 Edition

The Irtysh Chronicle

12 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Crisis

Match

The wait goes on for Irtysh

12 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.

Squad

Tempers go at Irtysh

Alexandr Smirnov 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

A row about effort at Irtysh

Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Artemy Maleev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.

The dugout

The manager makes an example of Yury Bavin

“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.

Match

A bad afternoon for Irtysh against Kaluga

0‑1 to Kaluga, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

The dugout

Denis Kuzin answers for it

“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑1, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.

The dugout

The team sheet said everything about Aznaur Geryugov

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 Aznaur Geryugov.

The dugout

Mark Isong asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Squad

A ban for Andriy Vyskrebentsev

One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Irtysh lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.

In brief

4 Edition

The Irtysh Chronicle

24 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Uneasy

Match

Irtysh out of the cup

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

Squad

Vladislav Poletaev decides it from twelve yards

1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.

Player ratings

Mark Isong runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 27. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

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

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

Match

Irtysh 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.

Squad

Alexandr Smirnov 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 Irtysh this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Transfer targets

Irtysh baulk at the price for Victor Okishor

Dinamo Moscow wanted more than $47.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Transfer targets

Akron tell Irtysh: Arseny Dmitriev is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Match

A bad afternoon for Irtysh against Kaluga

0‑1 to Kaluga, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.

In brief