Marked for Anton Yevdokymov
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad31 Jan 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Podillia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match29 Jan 2028
The wait goes on for Podillia
11 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.
Match29 Jan 2028
1‑4 to Victoriia Sumy, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Player ratings31 Jan 2028
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.27 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Market31 Jan 2028
“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 dugout31 Jan 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Podillia may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Everything agreed with Obolon, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Squad31 Jan 2028
Oleksandr Lomaha 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.
Transfer targets31 Jan 2028
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. LNZ have kept their man, and Podillia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
In brief
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Squad
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
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The dugout
Yevhen Korokhov gets it from the manager
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Boardroom
Nobody left the Podillia dressing room in a hurry
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad10 Jan 2028
A bone, which is the one injury with a calendar attached. Podillia will name a return date and, unusually for this business, will probably be right about it.
Match10 Jan 2028
Every point is an argument now for Podillia
Position 14 and 17 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.
Match8 Jan 2028
No end in sight to Podillia's wait for a win
8 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Podillia has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad10 Jan 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Podillia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match8 Jan 2028
Feniks left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad10 Jan 2028
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Yevdokymov 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.
Squad10 Jan 2028
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at Podillia can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
The dugout10 Jan 2028
“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 dugout10 Jan 2028
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Denys Marlos left the room before anybody could ask which.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad20 Dec 2027
13 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 133 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings20 Dec 2027
At 35 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.02, and nobody on the pitch better.
Match18 Dec 2027
5 matches without a win for Podillia
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Podillia are no longer polite ones.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Anton Yevdokymov 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.
Squad20 Dec 2027
Words exchanged at Podillia
Alessandro Bagnaschi 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.
Match18 Dec 2027
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Denys Marlos after the 1‑1 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
The dugout20 Dec 2027
Shlok Kaul gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
The dugout29 Nov 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Podillia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Ruslan Chernenko, 35, rolls back the years — 7.86
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 7.86 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
7.21, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad29 Nov 2027
A row about effort at Podillia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Yevdokymov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Boardroom29 Nov 2027
Wages eat 121% of everything Podillia 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.
Player ratings29 Nov 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Match29 Nov 2027
The half-term report on Podillia
Position 13, 14 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
Squad29 Nov 2027
“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 Podillia know it.
Squad29 Nov 2027
Yan Zheliba in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Podillia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Nov 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yaroslav Kvasov
23 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Podillia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Taras Dmytruk 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.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Davronbek Azizov 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.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. Podillia told Taras Dmytruk something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“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.
Looking ahead15 Nov 2027
UCSA next, and one man in the Podillia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
Squad15 Nov 2027
“I did not sign to watch. Nobody does.” The oldest complaint in the game, and Podillia will have to answer it with minutes or with a move.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Nothing in writing and nothing in public: a word about playing time, given face to face at Podillia. The team sheets over the next month will show whether it was worth having.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Artur Kozachuk knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Artur Kozachuk trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Nov 2027
30 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Podillia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Player ratings8 Nov 2027
Ruslan Chernenko, 35, rolls back the years — 8.08
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.08 at 35, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Match6 Nov 2027
At last: Podillia win one
9 matches without a win, and then this, against Bukovyna. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad8 Nov 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Podillia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad8 Nov 2027
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Yevdokymov 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.
Match6 Nov 2027
Bukovyna made Podillia work for it, but the scoreboard read 1‑0 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad8 Nov 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Podillia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout8 Nov 2027
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Denys Marlos could afford to be generous.
Boardroom8 Nov 2027
Belts tighten at Podillia
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Nov 2027
Yaroslav Kvasov damages knee ligaments — 37 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 37 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.
Match30 Oct 2027
9 matches without a win for Podillia
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Podillia are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
At 35 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 7.83 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Player ratings1 Nov 2027
A defender's goal wins it for Podillia — 7.60
1 for Anton Yevdokymov, marked 7.60, 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Podillia have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad1 Nov 2027
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Taras Dmytruk 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.
The dugout1 Nov 2027
“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.
Boardroom1 Nov 2027
98% of the income goes out in wages at Podillia
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad1 Nov 2027
An error at the back is a moment; an error in goal is a goal. Ivan Ponomarenko knows it, the crowd knew it instantly, and there was nobody behind him to make it anything else.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Oct 2027
53 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Podillia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match16 Oct 2027
7 matches without a win for Podillia
The run now stands at 7, and the questions being asked around Podillia are no longer polite ones.
Squad18 Oct 2027
7 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Marked 7.67 at 21, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Player ratings18 Oct 2027
Up for the corner, and Yevhen Korokhov delivers — 7.79
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Yevhen Korokhov scored, was marked 7.79, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A falling-out at Podillia
Yaroslav Kvasov and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match16 Oct 2027
Yevhen Korokhov among the goals in a wild afternoon
6 goals in one match, Yevhen Korokhov on the scoresheet, and a scoreline that will look like a misprint. Neutrals could not have asked more of Podillia and Kudrivka.
Match16 Oct 2027
2‑4 to Kudrivka, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad18 Oct 2027
A row about effort at Podillia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Yevdokymov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad27 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yaroslav Kvasov
75 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Podillia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Sep 2027
5 matches without a win for Podillia
The run now stands at 5, and the questions being asked around Podillia are no longer polite ones.
Squad27 Sep 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Podillia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets27 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Polissia have kept their man, and Podillia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad27 Sep 2027
A row about effort at Podillia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Yevdokymov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Too much change too quickly at Podillia
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Match25 Sep 2027
Honours even between Podillia and Nyva
1‑1, and both dressing rooms will call it two points lost. A draw that asked plenty of questions and answered none of them.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Successful dribbles: 14. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Denys Marlos was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Podillia dressing room was either.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad20 Sep 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yaroslav Kvasov
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Podillia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑3 by Livyi Bereh, and beaten everywhere it matters. The inquest starts on the training pitch on Monday morning.
Match18 Sep 2027
The wait goes on for Podillia
4 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.
Match18 Sep 2027
The goals have deserted Podillia
4 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Podillia can tell you which week it ends in.
Transfer targets20 Sep 2027
Podillia asked and Obolon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad20 Sep 2027
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Yevdokymov 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.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Vladyslav Shkinder, and the manager let it.
Boardroom20 Sep 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout20 Sep 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑3, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad6 Sep 2027
98 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Podillia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
The deal with Metalist is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Ruslan Chernenko 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.
Transfer targets6 Sep 2027
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Kolos have kept their man, and Podillia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad6 Sep 2027
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Yevdokymov 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.
The dugout6 Sep 2027
The manager has not finished forgetting Yevhen Korokhov's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
Squad6 Sep 2027
A place in the month's best eleven for Nazar Lys
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Nazar Lys has come out of that comparison in the side, and Podillia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Wages eat 85% of everything Podillia 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.
Boardroom6 Sep 2027
Belts tighten at Podillia
The accounts are being read more closely than the results. Wages before ambition is the order of business now, and the manager has been told so.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad30 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yaroslav Kvasov
105 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Podillia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match25 Aug 2027
The cup run ends for Podillia
0‑2 against Kolos, and the road stops here. Cup exits are quick deaths — no second leg, no next week, just the league from now until May.
Market30 Aug 2027
Nazar Lys 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 Podillia can pretend not to have heard.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Everything agreed with Poltava, everything agreed with the player; a doctor is the only person left to persuade. The photograph is a day or two away.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Metalurh Zaporizhzhia is saying, and nobody at Podillia is enjoying the guessing.
Squad30 Aug 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Podillia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets30 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad30 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Podillia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Yevdokymov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match28 Aug 2027
Oleksandriya left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
In brief
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The dugout
The manager makes an example of Ivan Ponomarenko
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Squad
Too much change too quickly at Podillia
-
The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Aug 2027
112 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Podillia lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Market23 Aug 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.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Up for the corner, and Anton Yevdokymov delivers — 7.65
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Anton Yevdokymov scored, was marked 7.65, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The dugout23 Aug 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.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Podillia have done the hard part with Obolon, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Chornomorets is saying, and nobody at Podillia is enjoying the guessing.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Podillia asked and Karpaty said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Yevhen Korokhov 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.
Match21 Aug 2027
It finished 2‑1, and it was Oleksandr Snizhko’s afternoon: on the scoresheet when it mattered, and the reason the points belong to Podillia.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Aug 2027
Yaroslav Kvasov damages knee ligaments — 119 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 119 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.
Squad16 Aug 2027
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.
Match14 Aug 2027
There were 87 minutes on the clock and Chernihiv had all but banked the point. Football rarely reads the room, and Podillia did not stop to explain themselves.
Match14 Aug 2027
The drought breaks for Podillia
10 without a win is the sort of run that changes how a town talks about its club, and Chernihiv were the afternoon it stopped. Nothing is fixed by one result and everything feels different by one.
Player ratings16 Aug 2027
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 7.81, and nobody on the pitch better.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
The deal with Metalist is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words exchanged at Podillia
Yaroslav Kvasov 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.
Transfer targets16 Aug 2027
Podillia asked and Obolon said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad16 Aug 2027
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Yevdokymov 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.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad9 Aug 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yaroslav Kvasov
127 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Podillia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match7 Aug 2027
The wait goes on for Podillia
10 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Podillia have done the hard part with Metalist, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Squad9 Aug 2027
Yaroslav Kvasov 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.
Transfer targets9 Aug 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad9 Aug 2027
A row about effort at Podillia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Anton Yevdokymov was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Match7 Aug 2027
0‑2 to Inhulets, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout9 Aug 2027
“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.
Squad9 Aug 2027
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Vladyslav Chaban commits to Podillia for another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad26 Jul 2027
Yaroslav Kvasov damages knee ligaments — 142 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 142 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.
Transfer targets26 Jul 2027
Podillia asked and Metalist said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Yevdokymov 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.
Squad26 Jul 2027
Nazar Lys in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Podillia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jul 2027
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Podillia are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Looking ahead26 Jul 2027
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Ahrobiznes in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad19 Jul 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Yaroslav Kvasov
150 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Podillia lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Podillia had done everything except persuade the man himself. He stays at Zorya, and the manager goes back to the drawing board with the money still in the bank.
Squad19 Jul 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Podillia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Podillia asked and Zorya said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anton Yevdokymov 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.
Squad19 Jul 2027
Too much change too quickly at Podillia
13 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
Metalist have been asked whether they would lend him. Loans are agreed quickly or not at all, and this one will be one or the other by the weekend.
Transfer targets19 Jul 2027
A loan enquiry to Rukh: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout19 Jul 2027
Marquinhos gets it from the manager
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market5 Jul 2027
Nazar Lys puts it in writing
“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 Podillia, and it is not being withdrawn.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
$190.0K was the most the club would pay and Zorya were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Nikos Tsaras gets the move he always wanted
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Nikos Tsaras has just signed for Podillia, and for once the answer mattered.
Transfer targets5 Jul 2027
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Anton Yevdokymov 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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
Yan Zheliba 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 dugout5 Jul 2027
“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.
Squad5 Jul 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Yevhen Kondratiuk and Podillia agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad4 Jan 2027
A fracture rules Ivan Ponomarenko out for 38 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Podillia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad4 Jan 2027
An individual honour is a strange thing in a team game, and the best of them are never argued with. He has had the sort of year that ends with his name being read out, and Podillia have had the benefit of it.
Squad4 Jan 2027
A falling-out at Podillia
Anton Savin and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad4 Jan 2027
Anton Savin is not the player he was
It happens to all of them and it is still the hardest paragraph a local paper has to write. 36 years old, 3 points down on where he was, and a body that has started charging interest on a career.
Match2 Jan 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
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 0‑1 defeat, delivered by Denys Marlos to a room that had heard them before.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
The manager makes an example of Serhii Zaiets
“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.
The dugout4 Jan 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Looking ahead4 Jan 2027
Every squad has one of these fixtures for somebody every season. This one is Anton Yevdokymov’s: the club that knew him first, the supporters who will decide in the first minute whether to applaud, and Podillia needing him to play as if none of it matters.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad14 Dec 2026
A fracture rules Ivan Ponomarenko out for 60 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Podillia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.12, and nobody on the pitch better.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Podillia
Cleiton and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Match12 Dec 2026
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Ruslan Chernenko. 3‑2 against Chernihiv, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
The terraces14 Dec 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.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Anton Savin, and the manager let it.
Match12 Dec 2026
2 goals inside twenty minutes with Ruslan Chernenko in the middle of it, and Chernihiv unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Anton Savin is still being punished for one mistake
Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad7 Dec 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 68 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.19 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.25 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“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.
Match5 Dec 2026
Victoriia Sumy made Podillia work for it, but the scoreboard read 2‑1 at the end and the table does not ask how.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A row about effort at Podillia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vadym Shavrin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
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.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Ruslan Chernenko
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Ruslan Chernenko has come out of that comparison in the side, and Podillia have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
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.” Denys Marlos kept it short after the 2‑1 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad30 Nov 2026
A fracture rules Ivan Ponomarenko out for 75 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Podillia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The dugout30 Nov 2026
“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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Anton Savin in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Podillia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom30 Nov 2026
Wages eat 157% of everything Podillia 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.
Squad30 Nov 2026
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Squad30 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Podillia
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Vadym Shavrin was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Anton Yevdokymov did the work nobody counts — 6.99
9 combined actions and 6.99. The job he did is the one that shows up as other people looking good, and the only reliable way to notice it is to watch what happens on the afternoons he is missing.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 9 combined actions and a mark of 6.81, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
Match30 Nov 2026
The half-term report on Podillia
Position 11, 16 points, and every result so far reduced to one line. The second half of the season starts with the same squad and a different set of expectations.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Oct 2026
A fracture rules Ivan Ponomarenko out for 112 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Podillia will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
No sign of nerves from Matvii Panchenko at 20 — 7.88
The hardest thing about being 20 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Matvii Panchenko did not need any: 7.88, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Up for the corner, and Anton Yevdokymov delivers — 7.86
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Anton Yevdokymov scored, was marked 7.86, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Cleiton in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Podillia this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The terraces26 Oct 2026
He is 20 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.
Match24 Oct 2026
A 2‑0 win over Prykarpattia, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings26 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 19. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad26 Oct 2026
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vadym Shavrin 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.
The dugout26 Oct 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Cleiton 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.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Karpaty have kept their man, and Podillia go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Podillia training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vadym Shavrin 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.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“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.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Cleiton needs a bigger stage
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and Podillia know which stage they are at.
Squad7 Sep 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Artur Kozachuk and Podillia agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market7 Sep 2026
At 37, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Looking ahead7 Sep 2026
UCSA next, and one man in the Podillia dressing room knows their training ground better than his own. The reception will tell him what they thought of him.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad10 Aug 2026
Anton Yevdokymov arrives at the club he grew up with
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Anton Yevdokymov has, at Podillia, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Player ratings10 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 25. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: another club keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Anton Savin 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.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Davronbek Azizov and Podillia agree another 3 years.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Stanislav Haiduchok is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
Clubs spend fortunes looking for players and occasionally find one down the corridor. Vladyslav Shakhov is that, and the reception he gets on his first appearance will be different in kind from the one any signing receives.
Market10 Aug 2026
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Maksym Shevchenko has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Ruslan Lunyov has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.