Marked for Denys Harmash
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad16 Dec 2030
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.
Match16 Dec 2030
Feniks refuse to drop out of the race
Position 3, 47 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.
Squad16 Dec 2030
Marley Wilson is in the form of his life
A season average of 7.30 with 17 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Match14 Dec 2030
Nobody wants to play Feniks right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Squad16 Dec 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match14 Dec 2030
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Feniks and Podillia in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Match14 Dec 2030
It finished 4‑2, and it was Marley Wilson’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Feniks.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
“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.
The dugout16 Dec 2030
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Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match18 Nov 2030
Feniks are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 37 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 6 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.
Squad18 Nov 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Chris Popov
13 goals and a season average of 7.34 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Squad18 Nov 2030
A falling-out at Feniks
Marley Wilson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad18 Nov 2030
A row about effort at Feniks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yehor Hunichev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match16 Nov 2030
Beaten 1‑2, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Player ratings18 Nov 2030
Successful dribbles: 19. 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.
Market18 Nov 2030
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Heorhiy 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.
Market18 Nov 2030
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Oleksiy Makarenko 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
Triumph
Market21 Oct 2030
“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.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Chris Popov takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Match21 Oct 2030
Feniks up to position 3
31 points on the board and a place in the leading group. Nobody at the ground is saying the word out loud yet.
Match19 Oct 2030
Nobody wants to play Feniks right now
5 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Player ratings21 Oct 2030
Chris Popov was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.62. 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.
Match19 Oct 2030
Three points for Feniks, 3‑1 the final word against Chernihiv in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad21 Oct 2030
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Yehor Hunichev 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.
Match19 Oct 2030
Feniks keep winning on the road
3 away wins in a row. Travelling support is the truest kind, and this season it is being repaid in the only currency that counts.
The dugout21 Oct 2030
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From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.55, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Match23 Sep 2030
Feniks are in among the leaders
Position 3 and 19 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
Player ratings23 Sep 2030
Successful dribbles: 29. 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.
Market23 Sep 2030
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad23 Sep 2030
Words exchanged at Feniks
Marley Wilson 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.
Transfer targets23 Sep 2030
Inhulets wanted more than $23.0K and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.
Match21 Sep 2030
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Chris Popov. 3‑1 against UCSA, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Transfer targets23 Sep 2030
Feniks asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout23 Sep 2030
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In brief
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Player ratings
Yehor Hunichev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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The dugout
Ástbjörn Þórðarson is still being punished for one mistake
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings12 Aug 2030
Successful dribbles: 32. 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.
Market12 Aug 2030
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match10 Aug 2030
7 unbeaten for Feniks
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 7 matches without defeat is a foundation Feniks did not have in the autumn.
Squad12 Aug 2030
A falling-out at Feniks
Yehor Hunichev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Aug 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ahmed Abubakarov and Feniks agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Transfer targets12 Aug 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The terraces12 Aug 2030
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.
Match10 Aug 2030
It finished 2‑0, and it was Dmitriy Volkovets’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Feniks.
Match10 Aug 2030
Feniks settle it inside twenty minutes
2 goals before the ground had finished arriving. Metalurh Zaporizhzhia spent the rest of the afternoon playing a match that had already been decided, and everybody in the stadium knew it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market15 Jul 2030
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Feniks can pretend not to have heard.
Market15 Jul 2030
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A muscle injury and 14 days out for Roman Hahun
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Feniks will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad15 Jul 2030
A row about effort at Feniks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yehor Hunichev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
Feniks asked and Dynamo Kyiv said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
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Squad15 Jul 2030
Words exchanged at Feniks
Nazar Yurchenko 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.
Transfer targets15 Jul 2030
A loan enquiry to Zorya: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout15 Jul 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yehor Hunichev is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Jun 2030
“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.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Everything agreed with Polissia, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad17 Jun 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad17 Jun 2030
Yehor Hunichev 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.
Transfer targets17 Jun 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
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The dugout17 Jun 2030
Yehor Hunichev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Feniks will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout17 Jun 2030
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad27 May 2030
Tempers go at Feniks
Zurab Rukhadze 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 dugout27 May 2030
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Squad27 May 2030
A row about effort at Feniks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Yehor Hunichev was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 May 2030
“The easiest signature of my career.” Denys Harmash and Feniks agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout27 May 2030
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.
The dugout27 May 2030
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Nazar Yurchenko trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market20 May 2030
“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 Feniks, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad20 May 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad20 May 2030
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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 dugout20 May 2030
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The dugout20 May 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Yehor Hunichev is on it.
The dugout20 May 2030
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad22 Apr 2030
A falling-out at Feniks
Yehor Hunichev and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad22 Apr 2030
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Zurab Rukhadze 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 dugout22 Apr 2030
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The dugout22 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Abubakarov, and the manager let it.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
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.
The dugout22 Apr 2030
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
Steady
Squad25 Mar 2030
A knee injury of the worst kind for Volodymyr Rotan
21 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Feniks lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad25 Mar 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad25 Mar 2030
Yehor Hunichev 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 dugout25 Mar 2030
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The dugout25 Mar 2030
Yehor Hunichev has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Feniks will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout25 Mar 2030
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market25 Feb 2030
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Olexandr Voytyuk will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Feniks the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Boardroom25 Feb 2030
Window shuts: 1 in, 4 out at Feniks
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 1 arrived, 4 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Market25 Feb 2030
Feniks say no — this time
The offer from Prykarpattia for Tsvetan Manolev 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.
Transfer targets25 Feb 2030
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Feniks have done the hard part with Kudrivka, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Words exchanged at Feniks
Nazar Yurchenko 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.
Squad25 Feb 2030
Kirill Samoilenko 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.
Transfer targets25 Feb 2030
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Dynamo Kyiv have kept their man, and Feniks go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The dugout25 Feb 2030
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The dugout25 Feb 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Ahmed Abubakarov, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match26 Jan 2030
2 goals to the good, and then a slow surrender of everything that had been earned. Yehor Hunichev will not be the one blamed for it, but nobody at Feniks escapes the conversation that follows a collapse like this.
Market28 Jan 2030
“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.
Player ratings28 Jan 2030
Two goals and a mark of 8.38 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market28 Jan 2030
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Feniks is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Squad28 Jan 2030
Defences have started doubling up on Yehor Hunichev
16 goals and a season average of 7.39 will do that. The space he used to find has gone; he keeps scoring anyway, which is the mark of the real thing.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
The deal with Shakhtar is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Match26 Jan 2030
4 matches without a win for Feniks
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Feniks are no longer polite ones.
Squad28 Jan 2030
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Feniks this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets28 Jan 2030
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings14 Jan 2030
Successful dribbles: 29. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad14 Jan 2030
A falling-out at Feniks
Nazar Yurchenko and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad14 Jan 2030
Words at Feniks training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kirill Samoilenko 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.
Match12 Jan 2030
0‑2 to Livyi Bereh, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑2, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Maksym Melnychenko is on it.
Market14 Jan 2030
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad14 Jan 2030
One yellow too many, and a match watched from the stand. The most avoidable absence in football, and Feniks will feel it on Saturday.
The dugout14 Jan 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Mykhailo Makarenko, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match29 Dec 2029
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Prykarpattia spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad31 Dec 2029
A season average of 7.37 with 14 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad31 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Nazar Yurchenko 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.
Squad31 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Feniks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Samoilenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match29 Dec 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Yehor Hunichev. 2‑1 against Prykarpattia, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The dugout31 Dec 2029
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Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Yehor Hunichev was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.34. 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.
Player ratings31 Dec 2029
Ninety minutes of Chris Popov at his very best
Marked 8.18. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Feniks.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match1 Dec 2029
No mercy from Feniks
Ahrobiznes will want this one forgotten quickly: 3‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Feniks were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
The dugout3 Dec 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Feniks may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
A brace, and Yehor Hunichev takes the afternoon — 8.45
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Yehor Hunichev provided it, and the 8.45 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
Vasyl Boyko, 17, steals the show — 8.03
Marked 8.03 at 17, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Squad3 Dec 2029
Tempers go at Feniks
Nazar Yurchenko 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.
Squad3 Dec 2029
A season average of 7.32 with 12 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad3 Dec 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Ahmed Abubakarov and Feniks agree another 1 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Player ratings3 Dec 2029
Chris Popov beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 20. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad3 Dec 2029
A row about effort at Feniks
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Kirill Samoilenko was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.