Marked for Stanislav Stepanenko
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match8 Sep 2035
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Serhii Kyslenko scored in the 88th minute, Ahrobiznes had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Inhulets took the lot.
Player ratings10 Sep 2035
At 37 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.12 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Ernest Astakhov 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.
Squad10 Sep 2035
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Roman Sherstyanykh 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.
Match8 Sep 2035
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Serhii Kyslenko. 2‑1 against Ahrobiznes, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Squad10 Sep 2035
“The easiest signature of my career.” Oleksiy Kulach and Inhulets agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings10 Sep 2035
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.
Squad10 Sep 2035
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Market10 Sep 2035
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Stanislav Stepanenko has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Inhulets.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings27 Aug 2035
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.08 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Ernest Astakhov 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.
Match25 Aug 2035
It finished 2‑1, and it was Bohdan Mohylnyi’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Inhulets.
Player ratings27 Aug 2035
Ninety minutes of Murilo at his very best
Marked 8.44. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Inhulets.
Squad27 Aug 2035
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Stanislav Stepanenko and Inhulets agree another 3 years.
Squad27 Aug 2035
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykola Tymchyk 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.
In brief
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Player ratings
Milan De Weerdt runs at them all day
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Squad
Murilo finally opens his account
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The terraces
The press cannot get enough of Murilo
From our football correspondent
Crisis
The terraces28 May 2035
The mood at Inhulets 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.
Squad28 May 2035
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Inhulets have had the benefit of it.
Squad28 May 2035
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match9 Apr 2035
Every point is an argument now for Inhulets
Position 15 and 19 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
Squad9 Apr 2035
Ernest Astakhov 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 Apr 2035
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mykola Tymchyk 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
Squad25 Sep 2034
Oleh Kocherhin damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Match25 Sep 2034
Inhulets are in real trouble now
Position 14, 8 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad25 Sep 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Sep 2034
Roman Sherstyanykh 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.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
There is a version of this player everybody suspected was in there, and on this evidence it is. 8.67, and no argument anywhere in the ground.
Match23 Sep 2034
A 1‑0 win over Oleksandriya, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad25 Sep 2034
The quietest bad news in football. At 23 nothing has moved for months — not backwards, which would at least be a conversation, simply nowhere. Somebody at the club will have to decide whether that is the club's fault or his.
The terraces25 Sep 2034
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Player ratings25 Sep 2034
Successful dribbles: 9. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad4 Sep 2034
41 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match30 Aug 2034
The small margins put Inhulets out
Out, 1‑2 to Rukh, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
Two goals and a mark of 8.10 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
Taras Tymchyk, 21, plays like he has been here for years — 8.11
A mark of 8.11 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 21-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The terraces4 Sep 2034
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Player ratings4 Sep 2034
A chastening introduction for Dmytro Shakhov — 5.63
It is a hard way to meet a crowd. Marked 5.63 on the day he was handed the shirt, and the important thing now is what the next one looks like.
Squad4 Sep 2034
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Roman Sherstyanykh and Inhulets agree another 4 years.
Squad4 Sep 2034
Ernest Astakhov 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.
Match2 Sep 2034
It finished 2‑1, and it was Serhii Kyslenko’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Inhulets.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
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The terraces
The crowd has taken to Taras Tymchyk
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Boardroom
115% of the income goes out in wages at Inhulets
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Aug 2034
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings28 Aug 2034
A debut Taras Tymchyk will not forget — 6.95
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 1 on the scoresheet, 6.95 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 18 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match26 Aug 2034
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
7 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad28 Aug 2034
Murilo 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 Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Aug 2034
“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
Crisis
Squad21 Aug 2034
55 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 25 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match19 Aug 2034
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
6 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad21 Aug 2034
Murilo 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.
Match19 Aug 2034
1‑3 to Livyi Bereh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Player ratings21 Aug 2034
Successful dribbles: 20. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Aug 2034
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Inhulets know it.
Player ratings21 Aug 2034
5.76 on the card. Some afternoons a footballer looks like a man who has only just been introduced to the game, and this was one of them.
Market21 Aug 2034
Contract settled, hands shaken, no fee changing hands. Denys Bezus leaves Inhulets the quiet way, and the wage bill breathes a little easier.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad14 Aug 2034
62 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad14 Aug 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 32 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market14 Aug 2034
“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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
“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.
Match12 Aug 2034
The wait goes on for Inhulets
5 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.
Squad14 Aug 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match12 Aug 2034
0‑1 to Dynamo Kyiv, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The terraces14 Aug 2034
Every touch is being weighed now, in print and everywhere else. Some players grow into that and some are quietly ruined by it, and nobody knows which in advance.
Market14 Aug 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Serhii Kyslenko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Aug 2034
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
The board have said in public what they had been saying in private. Results between now and the next meeting decide it, and everybody in the building knows the arithmetic.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 39 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
The Inhulets board call everybody in
Nothing has been announced and everybody understands what it means. A board that summons the whole football department on a Tuesday morning is a board that has stopped believing the problem will fix itself.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
The Inhulets 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.
Match5 Aug 2034
No end in sight to Inhulets's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Inhulets has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad7 Aug 2034
“The easiest signature of my career.” Dmytro Kasimov and Inhulets agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Squad7 Aug 2034
Ernest Astakhov 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.
Boardroom7 Aug 2034
103% of the income goes out in wages at Inhulets
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
Crisis
Squad31 Jul 2034
76 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 46 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
The terraces31 Jul 2034
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 6 of the 30 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Squad31 Jul 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom31 Jul 2034
Graduation day at Inhulets
8 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.
Squad31 Jul 2034
Roman Sherstyanykh 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.
Match29 Jul 2034
A bad afternoon for Inhulets against LNZ
0‑2 to LNZ, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market31 Jul 2034
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Kostiantyn Burda 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.
Market31 Jul 2034
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Mykola Sobol 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Jul 2034
83 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad24 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 53 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad24 Jul 2034
Ernest Astakhov 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad17 Jul 2034
90 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad17 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 60 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad17 Jul 2034
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jul 2034
A move Viktor Popov would have made for nothing
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Viktor Popov is living that version at Inhulets, and it tends to show in the first month.
Boardroom17 Jul 2034
Vorskla will keep picking him until June and will get nothing for him after it. Kuji Beselia has pre-agreed a move to Inhulets, and the only people who lose in that arrangement are the ones who let the contract run down.
Market17 Jul 2034
Every press conference now starts and ends the same way: with Serhii Kyslenko’s future. The manager has run out of new ways to say nothing.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Jul 2034
97 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 67 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad10 Jul 2034
Murilo 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.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Inhulets training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad3 Jul 2034
104 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad3 Jul 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 74 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad3 Jul 2034
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Bohdan Mohylnyi commits to Inhulets for another 2 years.
In brief
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Squad
Murilo in a row with a teammate
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Boardroom
Intake day at the Inhulets academy
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Boardroom
Inhulets keep producing them
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Jun 2034
111 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 81 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Jun 2034
Vadym Sydun 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 Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad19 Jun 2034
118 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad19 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 88 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market19 Jun 2034
“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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Jun 2034
125 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Inhulets lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 95 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad12 Jun 2034
Vadym Sydun 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 Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad10 Apr 2034
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Inhulets may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Vadym Sydun 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 Inhulets this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Apr 2034
Yehor Abramov 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.