Marked for Sergey Dmitriev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Oct 2026
122 days out for Pavel Solomatin after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Astrakhan will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.90, and nobody on the pitch better.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“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.
The terraces19 Oct 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Kirill Pluzhnikov 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over Sochi 2, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings19 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Magomed Pirmagomedov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 2‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Pavel Solomatin, and the manager let it.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad5 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Pavel Solomatin out for 136 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Astrakhan will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
Wages eat 312% of everything Astrakhan earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
Match3 Oct 2026
Rubin Yalta left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout5 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad5 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Astrakhan
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Renat Malomusov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Magomed Pirmagomedov 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.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
Nobody at Astrakhan is suggesting he is out of form. The manager simply wanted somebody with a different set of qualities for ninety specific minutes, and there is nothing a player can train to fix that.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings31 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 37. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Transfer targets31 Aug 2026
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.
Squad31 Aug 2026
200 games in the shirt. Nobody sets out to build a record like that; it happens to a certain kind of player at a certain kind of club, and this town knows what it has.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ilja Levchenkov, and the manager let it.
Squad31 Aug 2026
29 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Astrakhan are still strangers to each other
10 new signings in one window. Every one may be an upgrade and the side can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild the verdicts never mention.
Squad31 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 Astrakhan this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout31 Aug 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Maxim Milyukov after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Match29 Aug 2026
Point won or two lost for Astrakhan?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Spartak Nalchik? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match19 Aug 2026
Mashuk ended it 0‑2. The season narrows to the league now, and everyone in the ground knew it before the final whistle.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 31. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Danil Goryaev takes the afternoon — 9.01
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Danil Goryaev provided it, and the 9.01 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Squad24 Aug 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 ratings24 Aug 2026
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.30 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Astrakhan, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Astrakhan had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Nart, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Match22 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Danil Goryaev. 3‑1 against Druzhba, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Khimik have kept their man, and Astrakhan go back to a list with one name crossed off it.