Marked for Mikhail Oparin
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match31 Mar 2027
Cup ties wait for somebody to seize them, and Anestis Mythou obliged against Uni-X Labs. 2‑1 on the night, and the name in the next round’s hat is Neman.
Match31 Mar 2027
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Neman scored in the 94th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Squad5 Apr 2027
There were 7 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Anestis Mythou, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.79
A mark of 7.79 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad5 Apr 2027
“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.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Aliou Thiaré goes up and wins it — 7.83
A defender on the scoresheet, which happens rarely enough that everybody in the ground remembers who took the corner. 1 for him, and a mark of 7.83 for the rest of it.
Player ratings5 Apr 2027
Defensive actions: 25. He was first to everything and second to nothing, and the goalkeeper had an easy day because of it.
Match3 Apr 2027
Nobody wants to play Neman 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.
Squad5 Apr 2027
Tempers go at Neman
Yuriy Pantia 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market5 Oct 2026
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Alexey Shalashnikov will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Neman the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neman this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Marked 7.03 on 24 actions at both ends of the pitch. Midfielders like this get described as unspectacular by people who have never tried to play against one.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Market17 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market17 Aug 2026
The deal that would have taken Mateush Montevka to Gomel has collapsed at the last stage, and he reports back to Neman with a summer to forget and a season still to play. Nobody is saying which side walked away.
Market17 Aug 2026
Maxim Kravtsov has one foot out of the door
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Neman they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
He will play here until the summer and then walk out of the door for free, having already signed elsewhere. Supporters will manage the first part of that sentence; it is the second they will struggle with.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Neman
Sergey Pushnyakov 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Neman training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
Match15 Aug 2026
Pavel Savitskiy scored, and precious little else went right: 1‑2 to Slutsk, and a quiet walk to the dressing room.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
The hardest thing about being 21 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Dmitry Radikovskiy did not need any: 7.82, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Pavel Pampukha gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Pavel Pampukha has just signed for Neman, and for once the answer mattered.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Mikhail Gordeychuk and Neman agree another 2 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Neman this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Mikhail Gordeychuk 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.
Match1 Aug 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Bogdan Levchenko. 2‑1 against BATE, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces3 Aug 2026
At 21 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.
Player ratings3 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.