Successful dribbles: 38. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Up for the corner, and Malick Fall delivers — 7.46
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Malick Fall scored, was marked 7.46, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dobrudzha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
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.
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Stefan Smarkalev knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Yordan Nedyalkov to a room that had heard them before.
In brief
The dugoutThe manager has not finished forgetting Stefan Smarkalev's mistake
1 for Malick Fall, marked 7.93, and a centre-half's name in the part of the report he normally only reaches by mistake. He will not be allowed to forget it in the dressing room for a month.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dobrudzha have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Dobrudzha and Lokomotiv Plovdiv, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Dobrudzha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Malick Fall 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.
Two goals and a mark of 8.87 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
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 7.63 for the rest of it.
A midfielder is measured on whether the team functions when he is on the pitch, which is nearly impossible to see and completely obvious in retrospect. 13 actions, 7.52, and a manager who will not be substituting him again in a hurry.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Malick Fall was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Kristiyan Balov 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.
Kristiyan Balov 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.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Dobrudzha training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vladimir Medved 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.
Nobody at Dobrudzha 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.
Nobody writes a headline about a tutor. Nobody has to be told, either, what happens to a signing who spends two years being the man nobody can talk to at lunch.
Dimitar Pirgov 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.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Malick Fall 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.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Dobrudzha, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dobrudzha know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.
In brief
Player ratingsAn afternoon Jhonatan Cuero will want back
The board had gone up, the arguing had started, and then the ball was in the net in the 91th minute. Botev Plovdiv will replay every second of the added time for a week.
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.
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 21 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
Tekio 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 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.
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 21-year-old it feels ownership of. André Sarim 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.
A 1‑0 win over Botev Plovdiv, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Yordan Nedyalkov on a 1‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Dobrudzha this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
At 36, 3 points below where he was, and a body that has started charging interest. It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph on this page.
“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 Dobrudzha know it.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Malick Fall was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Stefan Smarkalev’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Dobrudzha needing him to play as if none of it matters.
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Dobrudzha know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Dobrudzha have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Plamen Pepelyashev is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.