4‑0, and Vasily Kobzev took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Neftyanik tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
A brace, and Vasily Kobzev takes the afternoon — 8.31
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Vasily Kobzev provided it, and the 8.31 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Andrija Čaluković 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.
Squad21 Dec 2026
Iljas Muminov 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.
He is 23 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.
A performance of 8.39 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Player ratings21 Dec 2026
Igor Berezhnoy was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.11. 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.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Sergei Milyukov on a 4‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Federico Esposito provided it, and the 8.27 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
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.
Fyodor Fedorov 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Words at Neftyanik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Dmitri Mamonov 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.
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.
31 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
The dugout23 Nov 2026
The view from the dugout
“We controlled it. There were spells I did not like and we will look at them, but the group showed me something.” Sergei Milyukov, on a 3‑0 win that he was already picking apart on the walk to the press room.
Fyodor Fedorov 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.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vasily Kobzev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Fyodor Fedorov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words at Neftyanik training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vasily Kobzev 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Timofey Smirnov 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.
Every club 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 it has been tried.
The demotion a club never announces and a dressing room always notices. Vadim Garin is further from the side than he was, and the reason will not be given until he asks.
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Fyodor Fedorov has come out of that comparison in the side, and Neftyanik have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.