Marked for Majid Pouraliganji
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad9 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Alireza Moharrami
20 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siah Jamegan lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Nov 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Siah Jamegan did not have in the autumn.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Alireza Noorafkan 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vouria Khodadad, and the manager let it.
Match7 Nov 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Majid Pouraliganji. 1‑0 against Rah Ahan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ahmad Shojaei 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
Marked 7.68 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Siah Jamegan had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 12. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 12 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad2 Nov 2026
Alireza Moharrami damages knee ligaments — 28 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 28 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.26, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match31 Oct 2026
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 9 matches without defeat is a foundation Siah Jamegan did not have in the autumn.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Siah Jamegan have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 16 actions, 6.93, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
At 22 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 ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match31 Oct 2026
8 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match2 Sep 2026
Esteghlal go through and Siah Jamegan go home, 0‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The Siah Jamegan board want somebody sold
The instruction has come from upstairs rather than from the dugout, which is the version of this conversation no manager enjoys. Somebody in that squad is now available whether the man who picks the team thinks so or not.
Market7 Sep 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.
The terraces7 Sep 2026
At 22 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.
Squad7 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.
Match5 Sep 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mohammad Hosseini. 1‑0 against Malavan, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.36, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Milad Hajsafi
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Milad Hajsafi has come out of that comparison in the side, and Siah Jamegan have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Player ratings7 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.