The Shakhter Gazette
Squad30 Apr 2035
Karim Mekkaoui damages knee ligaments — 91 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 91 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.
Match28 Apr 2035
Pavel Popov leads the rout of Taraz
3‑0, and Pavel Popov took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Shakhter tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Pavel Popov takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad30 Apr 2035
Words exchanged at Shakhter
Aslan Akhmedov 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.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Ninety minutes of Pavel Popov at his very best
Marked 9.22. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Shakhter.
Squad30 Apr 2035
A muscle injury sidelines Talgat Postnikov for 14 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Shakhter will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Player ratings30 Apr 2035
Nothing got past Aslan Akhmedov
16 defensive actions and a clean sheet at the end of them. A defender's afternoon can only be told by what did not happen, which is why nobody makes a highlights package out of one and every manager in the division would take it.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
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.” Interim Coach kept it short after the 3‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
The dugout30 Apr 2035
The form table has caught Timur Logvinenko
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
In brief
- The dugout When it matters, Ańsar Altynkhan plays
- Looking ahead Damir Marat goes back to face Okzhetpes
- The dugout Gafurzhan Dosmagambetov asks for a word with the manager