Marked for Andrei Filipenko
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Jun 2028
23 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“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.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Nelson Seguel 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jun 2028
“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.
Market19 Jun 2028
Only the photograph left for Hleb Makas
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Hleb Makas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Lokomotiv Gomel the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Mikita Noyok 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 ratings19 Jun 2028
22 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.
Boardroom19 Jun 2028
The numbers do not look good at Lokomotiv Gomel
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.
Player ratings19 Jun 2028
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Market19 Jun 2028
Both sides expect a conversation in the coming days. Lokomotiv Gomel will name a price, and everything after that is arithmetic.
Squad19 Jun 2028
Words at Lokomotiv Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Pavel Martynovich 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.
Market19 Jun 2028
No place for Hleb Volodko in the plan
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Hleb Volodko has his answer from Lokomotiv Gomel; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 May 2028
Mikalai Balanovich damages knee ligaments — 23 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 23 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.
Match1 May 2028
Position 3 and 13 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad1 May 2028
Nelson Seguel 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 terraces1 May 2028
At 23 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.
Boardroom1 May 2028
The borrowing is past what the bank agreed, which is the line where a debt stops being how football is financed and starts being a problem. Every phone-in in this town will quote the figure for the next five years.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Marked 7.74 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Lokomotiv Gomel had the best player on the pitch.
Player ratings1 May 2028
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad1 May 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrei Filipenko, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces17 Jan 2028
The mood at Lokomotiv Gomel has turned into something else
Supporters who sing when it goes badly are supporters. Supporters who gather afterwards are a problem, and everybody inside the building knows which of the two this now is.
Squad17 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pavel Sivakov
56 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiv Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom17 Jan 2028
Pressure builds in the Lokomotiv Gomel boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market17 Jan 2028
Viktar Bykau has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Lokomotiv Gomel they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad17 Jan 2028
Valery Zhavnerchik 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 Jan 2028
Yaroslav Stavrov 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
Uneasy
Squad10 Jan 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Pavel Sivakov
63 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Lokomotiv Gomel lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Mikita Noyok 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 Lokomotiv Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Lokomotiv Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Hleb Nekhaichik 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
Uneasy
Market15 Nov 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv Gomel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad15 Nov 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 Lokomotiv Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Loan watch15 Nov 2027
“I watch every Lokomotiv Gomel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Bumprom Gomel runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Nov 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 Lokomotiv Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Hleb Nekhaichik 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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
100% of the income goes out in wages at Lokomotiv Gomel
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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The terraces25 Oct 2027
Anger at Lokomotiv Gomel spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Boardroom25 Oct 2027
Pressure builds in the Lokomotiv Gomel boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market25 Oct 2027
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Lokomotiv Gomel is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Mikita Noyok 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 Lokomotiv Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Oct 2027
Words at Lokomotiv Gomel training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Arlouski 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.
Squad25 Oct 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Andrei Filipenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match13 Sep 2027
24 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Squad13 Sep 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.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Nelson Seguel 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.
Boardroom13 Sep 2027
The accounts make uncomfortable reading. Wages first and ambition second is the order of business at Lokomotiv Gomel now.
Loan watch13 Sep 2027
“I watch every Lokomotiv Gomel game from here. That says everything about where my head is.” The loan at Niva runs its course, but his heart never made the trip.
Squad13 Sep 2027
Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 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.
Market6 Sep 2027
Slonim come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Lokomotiv Gomel did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad6 Sep 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mikita Stasevich and Lokomotiv Gomel agree another 2 years.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Mikita Noyok 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.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Hleb Nekhaichik 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Wages eat 111% of everything Lokomotiv Gomel 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Jul 2027
Mikita Noyok 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.
Market12 Jul 2027
The phone has started ringing about Viktar Bykau again, and this time the name on the line is Niva. Lokomotiv Gomel are listening politely and promising nothing.
Boardroom12 Jul 2027
120% of the income goes out in wages at Lokomotiv Gomel
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.
Market12 Jul 2027
Gomel are about to pick up the phone
A conversation is coming this week. Lokomotiv Gomel will put a number on him, and from there it stops being football and becomes arithmetic.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Andrei Filipenko, and the manager let it.
Squad12 Jul 2027
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Yahor Ihnatovich trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 May 2027
Nelson Seguel 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.
Loan watch10 May 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Lokomotiv Gomel, and 4 appearances in 14 say he has earned the hearing.
Squad10 May 2027
“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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match6 Mar 2027
0‑5 to Orsha, 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.
Market8 Mar 2027
Yan Hleb puts it in writing
“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 Lokomotiv Gomel, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Andrei Filipenko: 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.” Lokomotiv Gomel have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad8 Mar 2027
Nelson Seguel 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.
Boardroom8 Mar 2027
5 boys move up, and somewhere in the building the people who coached them at twelve are quietly having the best morning of their working year. Nothing about this shows up in a result and it is why the academy exists.
Squad8 Mar 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Aliaksandr Korzun and Lokomotiv Gomel agree another 2 years.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Sergei Hryshyn has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market8 Mar 2027
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Viktar Bykau has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market8 Mar 2027
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Yahor Chalavach has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 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 Lokomotiv Gomel this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Mar 2027
Hleb Nekhaichik 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.
Boardroom1 Mar 2027
The numbers do not look good at Lokomotiv Gomel
Wages have outrun income and the accountants have started attending meetings they used to send apologies to. Ambition comes second in a season like this.