Marked for Nil Coch
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match18 Jan 2027
Epicentr are in real trouble now
Position 14, 18 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Market18 Jan 2027
“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 dugout18 Jan 2027
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Epicentr may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Kyrylo Kovalets 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.
Squad18 Jan 2027
Words exchanged at Epicentr
Nil Coch 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.
The terraces18 Jan 2027
He is 22 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.
Match16 Jan 2027
It had gone 5 games. The players did not celebrate like men who had won a match; they celebrated like men who had been let out of something.
Player ratings18 Jan 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match16 Jan 2027
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Fran Topić. 1‑0 against Kudrivka, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad7 Dec 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Artur Povoroznyk
22 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Epicentr lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 9 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Market7 Dec 2026
“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 ratings7 Dec 2026
No sign of nerves from Bohdan Budko at 20 — 7.81
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Bohdan Budko did not need any: 7.81, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Boardroom7 Dec 2026
The silence upstairs is getting loud at Epicentr
Nobody on the board has said anything against the manager, which is the point — they have stopped saying anything for him either.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Epicentr
Kyrylo Kovalets and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Carlos Rojas and Epicentr agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
The dugout7 Dec 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.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Oleh Bilyk
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad26 Oct 2026
Ihor Kyriukhantsev damages knee ligaments — 39 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 39 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
The wait goes on for Epicentr
9 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match26 Oct 2026
Every point is an argument now for Epicentr
Position 15 and 4 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The dugout26 Oct 2026
Bohdan Budko: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Epicentr have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Oct 2026
19 days out for Denys Holub after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Epicentr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Squad26 Oct 2026
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.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 24. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Epicentr training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Bohdan Budko 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
The goals have deserted Epicentr
3 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Epicentr can tell you which week it ends in.
In brief
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Match
Shakhtar take the points off Epicentr
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The dugout
Nil Coch gets it from the manager
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The dugout
The manager’s verdict
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Market21 Sep 2026
“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 Epicentr, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad21 Sep 2026
There were 8 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
59 days out for Denys Holub after a fracture
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Epicentr will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Inter keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a win for Epicentr
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Epicentr are no longer polite ones.
Match19 Sep 2026
4 matches without a goal for Epicentr
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Bohdan Budko 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at Epicentr
Kyrylo Kovalets 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.