Marked for Dmitry Sergeev
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market9 Nov 2026
Oleg Smirnov hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veles can pretend not to have heard.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 7 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad9 Nov 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 Veles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 21. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad9 Nov 2026
The manager makes an example of Ishkhan Geloyan
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Kirill Kistenev 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
13 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.
Match7 Nov 2026
Point won or two lost for Veles?
Ninety minutes, no goals, and the argument started before the car park emptied: a point gained, or two thrown away against Textilschik? Both sides of it will still be going on Thursday.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Shots: 9, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match2 Nov 2026
Veles sink to position 9
14 points, and a fixture list that is running out. The mathematics are not yet cruel, but they are no longer kind.
Market2 Nov 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Veles can pretend not to have heard.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Veles may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Veles
Ishkhan Geloyan 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.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Ninety minutes of Alexandr Shubin at his very best
Marked 9.42. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Veles.
Squad2 Nov 2026
“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 Veles know it.
Boardroom2 Nov 2026
Wages eat 787% of everything Veles earn
There is a figure at which a wage bill stops being ambitious and becomes the reason nothing else is possible, and this club has reached it. Nothing is left over for a transfer, a stand or a rainy afternoon.
The terraces2 Nov 2026
At 23 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.
Match31 Oct 2026
Veles get the job done against Sibir
A 2‑0 win over Sibir, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad12 Oct 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artur Arustamyan
33 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Veles lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
23 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.
Squad12 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 Veles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
A performance of 8.88 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match10 Oct 2026
Three points for Veles, 1‑0 the final word against Mashuk in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Yury Zavezen
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
17 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.
Market12 Oct 2026
“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.
Player ratings12 Oct 2026
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 16 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 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 Veles this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match15 Aug 2026
6 goals. Both benches spent the second half looking at each other rather than at the pitch. Purists will complain about Veles and Alania in equal measure; everybody else had a wonderful time.
Squad17 Aug 2026
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Rasul Mitsaev knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Alexandr Shubin was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.87. 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.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Alexandr Shubin has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A performance of 8.44 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Match15 Aug 2026
Veles share the spoils with Alania
A 3‑3 draw with Alania leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.