Marked for Askhat Shomko
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match29 May 2027
15 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 15, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad31 May 2027
110 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akzhaiyk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 May 2027
There were 9 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.
Market31 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 May 2027
A muscle injury sidelines Baurzhan Postnikov for 15 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Akzhaiyk will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad31 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 May 2027
Irtysh left with the points after a 2‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Erkebūlan Seidakhmet was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.20. 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 ratings31 May 2027
Off the bench and decisive: Askhat Shomko
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Akzhaiyk were going nowhere until he came on.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match22 May 2027
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 May 2027
117 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akzhaiyk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match22 May 2027
1‑5 to Ordabasy, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Market24 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad24 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match22 May 2027
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 6 goals between Akzhaiyk and Ordabasy, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad24 May 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rinat Tagybergen commits to Akzhaiyk for another 4 years.
Squad24 May 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baurzhan Postnikov 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 ratings24 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 56. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad10 May 2027
131 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akzhaiyk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match8 May 2027
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
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.
Squad10 May 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market10 May 2027
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 May 2027
138 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akzhaiyk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings3 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match1 May 2027
11 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Squad3 May 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match1 May 2027
Akzhaiyk are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 11 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Market3 May 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Akzhaiyk can pretend not to have heard.
Squad3 May 2027
“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.
Squad3 May 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 May 2027
A bad afternoon for Akzhaiyk against Taraz
1‑2 to Taraz, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match10 Apr 2027
Beaten 3‑6 by Kairat, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad12 Apr 2027
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.
Match7 Apr 2027
The small margins put Akzhaiyk out
Out, 0‑2 to Aktobe, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match10 Apr 2027
The wait goes on for Akzhaiyk
8 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.
Match10 Apr 2027
Akzhaiyk leaking at the back
8 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.
Market12 Apr 2027
“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 Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad12 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Apr 2027
9 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Akzhaiyk and Kairat in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 37. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 63 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match3 Apr 2027
6 matches without a win for Akzhaiyk
The run now stands at 6, and the questions being asked around Akzhaiyk are no longer polite ones.
Market5 Apr 2027
“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 Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match3 Apr 2027
Akzhaiyk are shipping goals every week
Two or more conceded in each of the last 6 matches. It is not one mistake repeating itself, which would be the easier thing to fix; it is a different one every week.
Squad5 Apr 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Erkebūlan Seidakhmet 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.
Market5 Apr 2027
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Rinat Vorogovskiy has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Akzhaiyk.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad22 Mar 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 79 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 33. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad22 Mar 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Akzhaiyk may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match20 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Akzhaiyk's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Akzhaiyk has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baurzhan Postnikov 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Akzhaiyk
4 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Feb 2027
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad15 Feb 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Nurali Akhmetov
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Akzhaiyk lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Market15 Feb 2027
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Taraz for Rinat Suyumbayev was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad1 Feb 2027
Baktiyor Nurgaliev damages knee ligaments — 15 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 15 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.
Market1 Feb 2027
“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 Akzhaiyk, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market1 Feb 2027
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Zhetysu for Askhat Shomko was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Yegor Baranov gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Yegor Baranov has just signed for Akzhaiyk, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad1 Feb 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Baurzhan Postnikov 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
Steady
Squad18 Jan 2027
Baktiyor Nurgaliev damages knee ligaments — 29 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 29 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Baurzhan Postnikov 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
Steady
Squad28 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Nurali Akhmetov out for 30 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Akzhaiyk will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Baurzhan Postnikov 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
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 80 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Askhat Shomko 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
Baurzhan Postnikov 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
Steady
Market21 Sep 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad21 Sep 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Aug 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 11 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Match12 Aug 2026
Akzhaiyk bow out of the cup
Tobol go through and Akzhaiyk go home, 0‑4 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Market17 Aug 2026
Akzhaiyk say no — this time
The offer from Zhetysu for Yeldos Zainutdinov was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
A cup hiding at Tobol leaves Akzhaiyk explaining themselves
0-4, 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.
Squad17 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Baurzhan Postnikov 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Askhat Shomko, and the manager let it.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
Nobody left the Akzhaiyk dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
Market17 Aug 2026
Akzhaiyk have made Yeldos Zainutdinov available for transfer. A career at this club is over in all but paperwork.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Squad3 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A brace, and Islambek Islamkhan takes the afternoon — 9.36
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Islambek Islamkhan provided it, and the 9.36 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
A debut Samat Abiken will not forget — 8.17
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 8.17 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad3 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 Akzhaiyk this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match1 Aug 2026
A 3‑1 win over Shakhter, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Akzhaiyk training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Rinat Vorogovskiy 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 terraces3 Aug 2026
At 20 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 ratings3 Aug 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.14, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Rinat Suyumbayev commits to Akzhaiyk for another 1 years.