The Pogradeci Sentinel
Match7 Nov 2026
Pogradeci taken apart
1‑4 to Kukësi, 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
José Rafael Reyes was unplayable
Successful dribbles: 27. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Ekene Olisema 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 dugout9 Nov 2026
José Rafael Reyes gets it from the manager
“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.
Boardroom9 Nov 2026
Nobody left the Pogradeci 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.
Market9 Nov 2026
Pogradeci and Ahmed Family are talking past each other
“There is a gap, and pretending there is not helps nobody.” Neither side has moved, and the calendar is working for exactly one of them.
The dugout9 Nov 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 1‑4 defeat, delivered by Etienne Xhixha to a room that had heard them before.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Pogradeci
Tomas Zekaj 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
Precious Agwu is off the mark for Pogradeci
The first one is the one every signing is asked about until it arrives. It has arrived, and he can stop being asked.
In brief
- Squad 4 past Bruno Puja
- The dugout Elvis Gjoni knocks on the manager's door
- The dugout No place in the plan for Mikael Rakipaj