Marked for Viktor Mamaev
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Dec 2026
41 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Neftyanik
Vitaliy Blinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match26 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Evgeni Efimov. 1‑0 against Shakhter Donetsk, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Boardroom28 Dec 2026
Wages eat 127% of everything Neftyanik 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.
Player ratings28 Dec 2026
Marked 8.22 — 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.
Squad28 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Neftyanik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Ostrovsky was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Dec 2026
Halfway: Neftyanik sit in position 3
41 points at the turn. The first half of a season is a promise; the second is a bill, and the town is about to find out which of the two this one was.
The dugout28 Dec 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Evgeny Berezhnoy kept it short after the 1‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Squad28 Dec 2026
Defences have started doubling up on Viktor Mamaev
3 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match19 Dec 2026
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad21 Dec 2026
The match ball belongs to Timofey Yelagin, whose 3 goals turned a difficult afternoon into a procession.
Squad21 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 Neftyanik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces21 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. Evgeni Efimov 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.
Match19 Dec 2026
The run at home goes on for Neftyanik
8 matches unbeaten here. Every visiting manager is asked about it in the week before, which is precisely why it keeps going.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
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 ratings21 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Timofey Yelagin at his very best
Marked 8.47. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Neftyanik.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A performance of 8.04 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Vasily Fedorov 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.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
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The dugout
A promise honoured at Neftyanik
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The dugout
The form table has caught Nikita Panov
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market14 Dec 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 Neftyanik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market14 Dec 2026
Fedor Nikolaev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Neftyanik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Match12 Dec 2026
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Ninety minutes of Timofey Yelagin at his very best
Marked 8.21. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Neftyanik.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Neftyanik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Ostrovsky 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Neftyanik
Eduard Nekrasov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Nikita Rybakov, and the manager let it.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Evgeny Berezhnoy to a room that had heard them before.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Off the bench and decisive: Nikita Panov
The substitution nobody applauded turned out to be the whole story. Neftyanik were going nowhere until he came on.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Dec 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eduard Nekrasov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Neftyanik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
The game went through Evgeni Efimov — 6.59
Marked 6.59 on 13 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Looking ahead7 Dec 2026
Top-of-the-table clash for Neftyanik
Nart next, and the two sides the division is watching meet each other. Whoever wins will be told nothing is decided in the same breath as being congratulated.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words at Neftyanik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Ostrovsky 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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Neftyanik
Yefim Borisov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Four weeks in which nobody in the division did his job better. The award goes on a shelf and the player goes back into the side, which is the order Neftyanik prefer.
Squad7 Dec 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Yury Kudrevaty has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Match5 Dec 2026
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match28 Nov 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 8‑0 against Chaika M, and it could have been more.
Match30 Nov 2026
Neftyanik are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 34 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 9.36 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad30 Nov 2026
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Market30 Nov 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 Neftyanik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match28 Nov 2026
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Neftyanik and Chaika M, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words exchanged at Neftyanik
Vitaliy Blinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
He is 22 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
A performance of 8.49 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match21 Nov 2026
Sochi 2 will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Neftyanik were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.56 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Vitaliy Blinov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The terraces23 Nov 2026
He is 20 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings23 Nov 2026
Evgeni Burov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.56. 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Dmitriy Ostrovsky 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.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 3‑0, already talking about the next one.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Miroslav Zubov, and the manager let it.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Every signing waits for it and every press conference asks about it until it comes. It has come, Neftyanik have their man off the mark, and the second one is always easier.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market16 Nov 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 Neftyanik, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market16 Nov 2026
Fedor Nikolaev has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Neftyanik they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad16 Nov 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 Neftyanik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Neftyanik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Ostrovsky was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Fedor Nikolaev
“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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
A promise honoured at Neftyanik
Something was said to Rodion Karimov and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Market16 Nov 2026
Neftyanik have let the market know Viktor Mamaev can be had. No price in the advert, but everyone in the trade knows roughly what it says.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Vitaliy Blinov knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Vitaliy Blinov trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Neftyanik know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match7 Nov 2026
A 2-goal lead gone for Neftyanik
It is a specific kind of quiet, a ground watching a winning position dissolve. Rubin Yalta kept coming because nothing stopped them, and Neftyanik will be asked about the last half hour all week.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Nikita Panov, 20, steals the show — 7.67
Marked 7.67 at 20, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Market9 Nov 2026
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Neftyanik is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Vitaliy Blinov 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Timofey Yelagin at his very best
Marked 8.19. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Neftyanik.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Words at Neftyanik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Ostrovsky 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
“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.
Match7 Nov 2026
It needed Vasily Fedorov to find the net to bring anything home at all: 3‑3 against Rubin Yalta, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Nov 2026
Neftyanik refuse to drop out of the race
Position 2, 27 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.48, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
The Neftyanik 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Timofey Yelagin. 3‑1 against Sevastopol, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.33, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Dmitriy Ostrovsky 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
No time for Sevastopol to settle
The goal that put Sevastopol ahead was still being replayed on the concourse when Neftyanik equalised, 3 minutes later. Leads are only worth what you do with them.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Evgeni Efimov did the work nobody counts — 6.77
9 combined actions and 6.77. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
29 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Neftyanik lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market12 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eduard Nekrasov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Neftyanik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Vitaliy Blinov 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.
Squad12 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Neftyanik
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Dmitriy Ostrovsky was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Loan watch12 Oct 2026
The goals keep arriving from Maksim Ogarev’s exile
3 goals in 7 games at Tver — numbers that travel home faster than he does. Somebody at Neftyanik updates a spreadsheet every Monday, and it makes better reading each week.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Vladlen Ivanov asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
Market12 Oct 2026
The name of Viktor Mamaev keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Neftyanik say nothing, which says plenty.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
They sit in position 13 and they will be waiting. Away form is where a season shows its true character, and this side has a point to make about its own.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings28 Sep 2026
Evgeni Efimov did the work nobody counts — 6.74
15 combined actions and 6.74. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Match26 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Match26 Sep 2026
The run is over for Neftyanik
4 matches without defeat, and then Druzhba. Nobody at the ground pretended it would go on forever; nobody expected it to stop here either.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Vitaliy Blinov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Evgeny Berezhnoy to a room that had heard them before.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Neftyanik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Fyodorov 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Fedor Nikolaev
“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.
The dugout28 Sep 2026
There is no complaint available here and everybody involved knows it, which does not make the walk to the bench any shorter. Form is the only currency in football that cannot be borrowed against.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market14 Sep 2026
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Neftyanik have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Market14 Sep 2026
Yefim Borisov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Neftyanik can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom14 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 3 in, 4 out at Neftyanik
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 3 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market14 Sep 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Eduard Nekrasov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Neftyanik the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match12 Sep 2026
Neftyanik cannot stop winning
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Transfer targets14 Sep 2026
Neftyanik asked and Veles said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match12 Sep 2026
A 1‑0 win over Dinamo Makhachkala 2, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Nikita Panov 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 Neftyanik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Neftyanik can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Neftyanik asked and Metallurg said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad7 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 Neftyanik this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Neftyanik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Nikolay Fyodorov 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Viktor Mamaev has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.
Market7 Sep 2026
Nikita Panov is 20, and Neftyanik have signed him for the player he will be rather than the one he is. The first team can wait; the point of a deal like this is the years it buys.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Nikita Rybakov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Nikita Rybakov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Neftyanik have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 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.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Denis Osokin’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Neftyanik needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Aug 2026
Rarely has this fixture seen a display like it: 7‑0 against PSK Pervorechenskoe, and it could have been more.
Market10 Aug 2026
Strogino come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Neftyanik did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad10 Aug 2026
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.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.04, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Market10 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Neftyanik people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Age has not caught Vasily Shubin yet — 8.29
At 33 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.29 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $18.0K — a club that wants Timur Nikolov enough to be asked twice.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Viktor Mamaev and Neftyanik agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Match8 Aug 2026
7 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Neftyanik and PSK Pervorechenskoe in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Neftyanik can pretend not to have heard.
Market3 Aug 2026
Neftyanik say no — this time
The offer from Kosmos for Yuri Solovyov 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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Neftyanik
Vitaliy Blinov and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Market3 Aug 2026
The name of Alexey Sokolov has come up in conversations Neftyanik were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Baltika have kept their man, and Neftyanik go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Neftyanik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitriy Ostrovsky 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑2 to Dinamo Stavropol, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The manager makes an example of Vitaliy Blinov
“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.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vladlen Ivanov commits to Neftyanik for another 1 years.