Marked for Hamza Ougnou
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Nov 2036
A fracture rules Georgi Trifonov out for 111 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dobrudzha will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market24 Nov 2036
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Dobrudzha can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings24 Nov 2036
Age has not caught Will Richmond yet — 8.42
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.42 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match22 Nov 2036
The wait goes on for Dobrudzha
5 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.
Player ratings24 Nov 2036
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match22 Nov 2036
Dobrudzha leaking at the back
5 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad24 Nov 2036
Malick Fall 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.
Match22 Nov 2036
2‑3 to Spartak 1918, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad24 Nov 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dobrudzha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Boardroom3 Nov 2036
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Yordan Mladenov has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Boardroom3 Nov 2036
The Dobrudzha board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Squad3 Nov 2036
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad3 Nov 2036
230 appearances across 10 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Dobrudzha know what they have.
Squad3 Nov 2036
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Montassar Triki and Dobrudzha agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Nov 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dobrudzha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Nov 2036
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Dobrudzha and Montana, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
A performance of 9.61 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings3 Nov 2036
David Kusso was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.82. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad6 Oct 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad6 Oct 2036
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matthew Guillaumier commits to Dobrudzha for another 2 years.
Match4 Oct 2036
Botev Plovdiv left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad6 Oct 2036
Words at Dobrudzha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Montassar Triki 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.
Squad6 Oct 2036
Jhonatan Cuero 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 ratings6 Oct 2036
Matteo Donatiello was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.95. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings6 Oct 2036
A performance of 8.24 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings6 Oct 2036
Marked 8.01 — 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.
The terraces6 Oct 2036
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Sep 2036
A fracture rules Montassar Triki out for 24 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dobrudzha will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match6 Sep 2036
Charlie Robinson had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Slavia Sofia were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Player ratings8 Sep 2036
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.84, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Player ratings8 Sep 2036
Age has not caught Will Richmond yet — 8.31
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.31 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad8 Sep 2036
303 appearances across 10 seasons in one shirt. Nobody builds a career like that on purpose any more; it happens to a certain kind of footballer at a certain kind of club.
Squad8 Sep 2036
Words at Dobrudzha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malick Fall 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.
Squad8 Sep 2036
Jhonatan Cuero 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 ratings8 Sep 2036
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.79, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match6 Sep 2036
A 3‑3 draw with Slavia Sofia leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad25 Aug 2036
A fracture rules Montassar Triki out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dobrudzha will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match23 Aug 2036
4‑1, and Sonosi Daldum took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Dobrudzha tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Match20 Aug 2036
Dobrudzha bow out of the cup
Levski go through and Dobrudzha go home, 0‑3 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Player ratings25 Aug 2036
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.85, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
The terraces25 Aug 2036
A cup hiding at Levski leaves Dobrudzha explaining themselves
0-3, and long before the end the away end had switched from encouragement to something considerably more pointed. Nobody rings a phone-in about losing narrowly.
Squad25 Aug 2036
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to David Kusso, and the manager let it.
Player ratings25 Aug 2036
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.26, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad25 Aug 2036
Jhonatan Cuero 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match21 Jan 2036
Dobrudzha sink to position 14
25 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings21 Jan 2036
Age has not caught Will Richmond yet — 8.91
At 36 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.91 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad21 Jan 2036
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Dobrudzha may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad21 Jan 2036
9 goals and a season average of 7.58. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Match19 Jan 2036
4‑5 to Botev Plovdiv, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Match19 Jan 2036
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Dobrudzha and Botev Plovdiv in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Words at Dobrudzha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malick Fall 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.
Squad21 Jan 2036
Jhonatan Cuero 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 ratings21 Jan 2036
A performance of 8.89 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Jan 2036
There were 8 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.
Squad7 Jan 2036
11 goals and a season average of 7.54. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
Squad7 Jan 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dobrudzha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Jan 2036
Words at Dobrudzha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Montassar Triki 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.
Player ratings7 Jan 2036
Marked 9.04 — 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.
Player ratings7 Jan 2036
Hamza Ougnou was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.15. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings7 Jan 2036
Successful dribbles: 17. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Boardroom7 Jan 2036
91% of the income goes out in wages at Dobrudzha
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Match5 Jan 2036
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Dec 2035
Tiago Duarte: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dobrudzha have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Match22 Dec 2035
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Dobrudzha and Slavia Sofia, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Sonosi Daldum is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.21 with 15 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad24 Dec 2035
Words at Dobrudzha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malick Fall 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 Dec 2035
Jhonatan Cuero 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 ratings24 Dec 2035
A performance of 9.12 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings24 Dec 2035
A performance of 8.78 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings24 Dec 2035
Ninety minutes of Sonosi Daldum at his very best
Marked 8.14. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dobrudzha.
Match22 Dec 2035
3‑3, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Dec 2035
“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.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Malick Fall 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.
Squad3 Dec 2035
Defences have started doubling up on Sonosi Daldum
14 goals and a season average of 7.20 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad3 Dec 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dobrudzha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings3 Dec 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.83, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings3 Dec 2035
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Nov 2035
There were 8 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.
Squad26 Nov 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dobrudzha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Nov 2035
Words at Dobrudzha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Montassar Triki 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.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings26 Nov 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.69, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad26 Nov 2035
5 goals and a season average of 7.39. Form like that gets noticed well beyond this town.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Oct 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match6 Oct 2035
Hamza Ougnou had done his part in building a 2-goal cushion. What happened after that was collective, and Botev Plovdiv were allowed back into a match that had been finished with.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Nikolay Nedelkov 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.
Squad8 Oct 2035
Malick Fall 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.
Squad8 Oct 2035
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Matteo Donatiello commits to Dobrudzha for another 4 years.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Hamza Ougnou was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.22. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
The terraces8 Oct 2035
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.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
A performance of 8.46 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings8 Oct 2035
Marked 8.41 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad24 Sep 2035
There were 8 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Nikolay Nedelkov 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Montassar Triki 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.
Match22 Sep 2035
Levski left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings24 Sep 2035
Marked 9.00 — 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.
Squad24 Sep 2035
Valdu Té 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match17 Sep 2035
Dobrudzha sink to position 15
7 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Will Richmond, 35, rolls back the years — 9.16
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.16 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Hakon Svensson 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.
Squad17 Sep 2035
Malick Fall 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 ratings17 Sep 2035
20 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
Match15 Sep 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Will Richmond. 1‑0 against Lokomotiv Sofia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Hamza Ougnou and Dobrudzha agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad17 Sep 2035
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Aykut Ramadan, and the manager let it.
Player ratings17 Sep 2035
Successful dribbles: 13. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match21 Jul 2035
3 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Sonosi Daldum will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Dobrudzha escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Player ratings23 Jul 2035
Will Richmond, 35, rolls back the years — 8.58
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.58 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Hakon Svensson 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.
Squad23 Jul 2035
Montassar Triki 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 ratings23 Jul 2035
Malick Fall was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.68. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Player ratings23 Jul 2035
Ninety minutes of Hamza Ougnou at his very best
Marked 8.27. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Dobrudzha.
Player ratings23 Jul 2035
A performance of 8.07 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad23 Jul 2035
“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.
Match21 Jul 2035
It needed Sonosi Daldum to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Montana, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
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.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 50 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom5 Feb 2035
The official line will be that it was routine. It was not routine, the timing says so, and every person in that room knows what the next bad result costs.
Squad5 Feb 2035
A day Valdu Té will not forget
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Squad5 Feb 2035
Valdu Té: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dobrudzha have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings5 Feb 2035
Valdu Té, 37, rolls back the years — 9.65
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 9.65 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad5 Feb 2035
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.
Match3 Feb 2035
It finished 4‑3, and it was Valdu Té’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Dobrudzha.
Match3 Feb 2035
Valdu Té among the goals in a wild afternoon
7 goals in one match, Valdu Té on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Dobrudzha and Septemvri.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Jan 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 12 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad22 Jan 2035
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.
Match20 Jan 2035
The 89th minute, half the ground already edging towards the exits, and Sonosi Daldum decided nobody was going anywhere. Ludogorets had no time left to answer.
Squad22 Jan 2035
David Kusso is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.60 with 10 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad22 Jan 2035
Nikolay Nedelkov 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 ratings22 Jan 2035
A performance of 9.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match20 Jan 2035
A 2‑1 win over Ludogorets, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings22 Jan 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.48, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings22 Jan 2035
Successful dribbles: 12. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad15 Jan 2035
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 71 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market15 Jan 2035
“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 Dobrudzha, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match13 Jan 2035
4 matches without a win for Dobrudzha
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Dobrudzha are no longer polite ones.
Squad15 Jan 2035
57 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings15 Jan 2035
Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad15 Jan 2035
Words at Dobrudzha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Montassar Triki 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad8 Jan 2035
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dobrudzha will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Player ratings8 Jan 2035
Will Richmond, 35, rolls back the years — 7.93
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.93 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match6 Jan 2035
Dobrudzha leaking at the back
6 matches, two or more conceded in every one of them. Sides that create as much as this can live with it for a while. Nobody lives with it forever.
Squad8 Jan 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Matthew Guillaumier and Dobrudzha agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match6 Jan 2035
Beaten 2‑3, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad8 Jan 2035
Words at Dobrudzha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malick Fall 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.
Player ratings8 Jan 2035
A performance of 8.88 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings8 Jan 2035
Marked 8.76 — 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Jan 2035
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Dobrudzha will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings1 Jan 2035
Will Richmond, 35, rolls back the years — 10.00
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 10.00 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Defences have started doubling up on David Kusso
9 goals and a season average of 7.56 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Match30 Dec 2034
No clean sheets in sight for Dobrudzha
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Match30 Dec 2034
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Dobrudzha and Levski, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad1 Jan 2035
Malick Fall 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.
Squad1 Jan 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dobrudzha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings1 Jan 2035
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 9.16, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Player ratings1 Jan 2035
Marked 9.00 — 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.