(FM'16) - холодная пустыня футбола и Русская зима

[neilhoskins77]

January 2016.

In the pen picture player introductions early in this story, I mentioned that Alexandr Patokin may be a little on the brittle side. He proved it by picking up the flu days after starting training again. On Tuesday, Uzbek striker Vladislav Aleksin comes to the office to let me know that he isn't happy with his lack of First Team football. I tell him that with new arrivals, I don't envisage him playing much football in our First Team, and that I'll sell him at the earliest opportunity. He says that it's pretty clear to him that he has no choice but to agree, and walked out. That action ended up being dripped in irony, as less than twelve hours later, he couldn't walk at all without large amounts of pain. Aleksin was turning out for the Reserves against Alnas Almetjevsk at Central, and with our lads losing 2-1 with ten minutes to go, strained his knee ligaments, which will keep him out for around two or three months. It did the strikers future prospects little good when the remaining ten players managed an equaliser without him that they hadn't looked close to getting while he was on the park. Young striker Yury Yarkin found the net two minutes into injury time, right winger Alexey Tarasov had reduced the arrears shortly after the start of the second half.

That match came one day too early at least for centre midfielder Sasha Palatnikov. The 26 year old who is eligible for Russia, South Africa, and the territory of Hong Kong where he has spent most of his life, was released from prison for aggravated burglary on Wednesday, and will now make his way to Magnitogorsk. He will spend some time with the Reserves to get match fit and be assessed. I'm looking forward to his arrival. Aside from the fact that he is scouted to be a very capable midfielder, he speaks fluent English, which will be great for me as my Russian is still pretty basic. On Thursday I get a report on one of my other midfielders, who is just a few days away from resuming training after an injury. Alan Kotsyubinskiy was just starting to make an impact with the First Team, before being put out of action with a calf strain. The report suggests that he has a fair bit of work to do before he can regularly challenge the likes of Kamenskiy and Gogolidze, but even if we get promoted, he would still be a decent player to have around the squad. That's good news, the more homegrown players who can have an impact on the First Team, the more likely we are to get the city's football fans interested in what we're doing.

One of our other homegrown hopefuls is seventeen year old centre back Islam Zarochentsev, who is yet to break into the First Team squad this season, but has performed well for the Under-18's, and has also more than held his own on the opportunites he has had to play for the Reserves. Sadly his development is going to be curtailed for the next few months as has sprained his ankle after falling awkwardly in a training session. He will likely be sidelined for around two months.

We're short odd favourites for our next match, an away League game against 15th placed APK Azov. Usually before the match, we get a memo letting us know some information about the ground we're going to, and how many fans are likely to be at the game etc. There's no real call for that when travelling to face APK, as despite selling 55 season tickets for this campaign, they have an average attendance of just six, and a low of one so far this season. In fact, the only time they have reached double figures was when they hosted top tier side FC Ufa in the Kubok Rossii back in August, and even then they didn't manage to get 500 people through the turnstiles. As a club, they make our problems look very insignificant. They have been looking for a new manager since for six months!

Saturday 9th January 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
APK Stadium, Azov.
APK Azov v Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Evgeny Korota; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Artem Veretennikov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Anvar Fomin, Narek Romashkin, David Arabachyan, Vladimir Matveev, Artem Ivanov, Alexandr Stepanov.

One change is required to today's matchday squad, with Evgeny Korota returning at left back to replace the suspended Artur Yamgurzin. Considering it's early January in Russia, the weather is a fairly mild 3c, though there is a strong wind blowing across the park, and as game time approaches, the stadium is in the path of a hailstorm that lasted until around fifteen minutes after kick off. That hailstorm was approaching it's conclusion by the time the first chance came along. Atrem Zherebin lifted the ball up the park after an opponents heavy first touch, and Alexey Suzov chased it down and kept the ball in. He should have squared it across goal, but instead tried to shoot from a very narrow angle. It was blocked, but fell to Kirill Uryupin, his effort was blocked as well though, and the ball was hoofed clear.

There were nearly twenty minutes on the clock when we got our next chance, and made this one count. Evgeny Korota swung the ball into the middle from the left back spot, and Suzov let it run past him and into the box, tying up a defender while he did so. Vladimir Iljin latched onto it, and fired it home from 8 yards out. Korota earned a yellow card, and from the resulting free kick, Valery Golovchanov made a reasonably comfortable catch from a header. In fact, the closest he came to getting beat in the early part of the match was from an over zealous back pass from Korota that nearly caught him out. Our second wasn't far away though, and it came on the counter attack. Iljin turned provider, firstly winning the ball in the air from an attempted short throw by APK near our corner flag, but also going after the loose ball and carrying it to safety. He then picked out Suzov just over halfway, and the striker did the rest. He went on a marauding run, twisting inside and out to move his defender around, and when he got to the edge of the box, he unleashed a low shot that beat the keeper inside his near post.

In a style typical of our performances in the last few weeks, we gave away an avoidable goal to make life difficult for ourselves, and we did so five minutes before the break. Vadim Krotov curled a through ball into the right channel from the centre circle, and Zalimkhan Svistich picked it up, and skipped into the penalty box. Korota came across to challenge him, but held back as he was already on a yellow card. He held back too much, and the striker earned his yard of room, and shot across goal, the ball bouncing off the far upright and just barely crossing the line.

Our hosts made two changes at the break, while I made sure my players knew exactly what was expected of them, and that concentration and composure were the keywords of the second half to come. As it turned out, the second half was pretty tight, with Krotov having the first real chance in the 69th minute, Pavel Kryukov booked for giving away the free kick, and Krotov collecting the ball on the left of the box after it was clipped over our defence, but Golovchanov pushed it away when the midfielder tried to beat him at his near post.

In the 72nd minute, and with APK offering little in the form of a threat as far as attacking intent went, I changed things around, but not quite in the way I normally would. With new forwards at the club, I've had the players practicing a new 4-2-1-3 formation, which does away with wide forward players and see's a two man midfield feed a shadow striker and three orthodox strikers. Artem Ivanov and Alexandr Stepanov join Suzov up front, replacing Vladislav Evseev and Iljin, and Kirill Uryupin plays just behind them. Narek Romashkin replaces Konstantin Kamenskiy in the centre pair. 90 seconds later and Kryukov makes a tackle just inside his own half and spreads the ball across the park to Stepanov, who sends it on to Suzov, and he in turn releases Ivanov down the right. He makes a driving run that puts a defender at full stretch, and when he reaches the byline, cuts it back across goal. Suzov prods it on target, Mark Mametov doing well to keep it out, only for Suzov to blast home the rebound from a couple of yards out to stretch our lead.

That should have been the game over as a contest, but APK were having none of that, and when Krotov's corner two minutes later wasn't cleared properly, Sergey Surov swept it onto the target, Golovchanov making the save, but centre back Alan Yudin stabbing home the loose ball from close range to make sure APK would stay in the contest at least. That was as much as they managed though, as we saw out the remaining moments of the match, Uryupin did pick up a booking for time wasting in the final few minutes.

APK Azov (1) 2 Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (2) 3
Scorers :- Vladimir Iljin (19), Alexey Suzov (26,74)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Evgeny Korota; Konstantin Kamenskiy (Narek Romashkin 72), Timur Gogolidze; Vladislav Evseev (Alexandr Stepanov 72), Vladimir Iljin (Artem Ivanov 72), Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 5. Man of the Match :- Alexey Suzov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

The score doesn't necessarily do that performance justice, APK were hard working, but they should never have got two goals past us, and I never had any doubt that we would come home with the three points, even in those later stages when the game should have been beyond their reach. Maybe I should have my players spending more time defending set pieces than learning new formations and tactics? Twelve matches unbeaten is a new club record, and not only has Alexey Suzov moved himself onto 37 goals in all competitions this season, he has also picked up his seventh man of the match award in League matches. His first goal was one of the better ones we have scored this season. Evgeny Korota's booking is his fifth of the season, which activates a one match suspension. That means for next weekends match with  , we'll be without both of our Senior left backs.

Elsewhere in the League, there is a heavy 3-0 defeat for Volgodonsk at home to a Spartak Shuya side who are now pushing to get their noses into the promotion hunt. That result means we have an eleven point lead at the top of the League, and that might be the least of Volgodonsk's worries, as Balakovo win 3-2 at home to close to within a point of the second automatic promotion spot. Energia Chaykovskiy notch a big 2-0 win over Slavyansk, which puts the victors fourth, and a point ahead of Spartak Kurgan who are 1-0 home winners this weekend. Krasnoznamensk lose ground and are level on points with Slavyansk after they are defeated 1-0 away from home. Salyut lose again at home, and have now dropped outside of the top ten, and are fourteen points out of the promotion spots.

[neilhoskins77]

January 2016.

There were plenty of clubs around Russia who were making use of the transfer window to improve their prospects in the second half of the season, but none of them appeared to be in our Division. Our opponents seemed to have little interest in seeking out players to aid their cause, and were waiting instead for the Youth Intake to arrive in a few months. Maybe a few considered it already too late to make any real impact on this season. But there were plenty who were still in a position where they could challenge for promotion or playoff spots. It wouldn't be something that I would lose any sleep over, it made our life much easier of course, and I made the decision that there was no real need for us to strengthen the squad any further at this point. While there is plenty more football to be played, we are clearly in control of our destiny now, and we will now work on searching for players who can assist us at the next level, a dangerous presumption to make, but one we're going to make regardless. My only downside feeling on the matter is that should we win this League, the other clubs lack of effort to stop us may make the success feel a little hollow.

On Monday morning, as preparations start for the next match against Energetik Uren, we receive the news that Maxim Guz, my assistant manager at the club, has successfully completed his course and achieved a UEFA 'C' Licence, a superb achievment. He is now the third staff member at the squad to reach this level, alongside our Director of Football and Reserve Squad Manager. I was hopeful that the Board would change their mind in the near future and allow me to go on a course myself, especially as I had recently refuted two links with much larger clubs. It's not a good look to be the manager and have staff working under me who are so much more qualified to do the job.

By Tuesday, it was one player coming off the injury report, only to be swiftly replaced by another. Alan Kotsyubinskiy resumed full training following his calf strain. The young centre midfielder knows he now has to work even harder to earn his time on the park with First Team now that Sasha Paltnikov has arrived at the club and plays in the same position. A position where we have a little bit less cover is weakened later in the same day, as centre back Artem Zherebin goes down with flu, and is sent home to recover. The following day saw our Under-18's play their latest match, an away game against Yugra Nizhnevartovsk. Our youngsters lost 3-2, but another centre midfielder made his mark on the match. 17 year old Igor Podymov set up both our goals, the second of which came from striker Semyon Kulakov.

On Friday, not only did our build up to the weekends match begin in earnest, but we also welcomed new Ukrainian striker Vitaliy Yermakov into training with us for the first time, as he began his comeback from the shoulder break he suffered while playing with his old club in December. Our tenth placed visitors were not expected to cause us too many problems this weekend, but as it turned out, there would be another more significant problem that our opposition...... 

Saturday 16th January 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Magnitogorsk.
Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk v Energetik Uren.
Match Postponed - Heavy Snow. Rescheduled for Tuesday 26th January 2016.

Snow is of course, not uncommon in these parts, in fact, it has snowed most days since around mid November. But this particular storm hit the area on the early evening of Friday. It was quite clear that we were going to be dealing with heavy snowfall, and as fast as the playing area was being cleared of snow, it was being covered with another blanket right away. On Saturday morning, it became obvious that the pitch would not be playable, and the match was called off. The match is rescheduled for ten days time, meaning we have two home fixtures in four days. However, we now have two Senior full backs both suspended for the arguably harder fixture against Slavyansk next weekend.

While our match was off, both Volgodonsk and Balakovo were winning, to close the gap a little bit. Spartak Kurgan had drawn in midweek, but they lost on Saturday away to bottom side Astratex, which meant that Energia Chaykovskiy increased the gap on them to two points with their draw. Spartak Shuya continued their good form with another win, and they were assisted on Sunday, with Krasnoznamensk beaten at home.

So the next Metallurg Magnitogorsk side to take to the park was scheduled for Tuesday, and Central's playing surface was deemed playable for the visit of Irtysh Tobolsk's age group side to play our Under-18's. It was Igor Podymov who had another great outing, the midfielder controlling the match from the middle of the park in the 1-1 draw, German Burlyaev netting from the spot to draw us level and earn the youngsters a point. On Wednesday, left back Evgeny Korota was diagnosed with a virus and sent home to recover, with the medical team saying to would be at least two weeks before he is available again. He would have been unavailable for Saturday's match anyway as he is serving that one match suspension. Later that day, our Reserves travelled to face Elektron Vyatskie Polyany. It proved to be an opportunity for Artur Yamgurzin to top up his fitness, and also Alexandr Patokin got a full ninety minutes under his belt on his return from injury. The winger scored at the end of each half, and Alexandr Stepanov netted from the spot as well, but that wouldn't be enough today, as a superb match ended 4-3 to the hosts. This match also saw Sasha Palatnikov make his first outing in a Metallurg shirt, and he completed the full 90 minutes.

And so it was on to Saturday, where we could finally get back to action at home to Slavyansk, safe in the knowledge that our playing surface at Central was back to normal....rutted, covered in a layer of frost, and almost entirely devoid of any grass, but playable nonetheless. Our sixth placed visitors would very much be the underdogs for the match, but we certainly won't be taking them lightly. They held us to a draw back in August when we travelled to face them, and they have got themselves positioned amongst the pack of teams fighting for the second automatic promotion spot, and the playoff slot awarded to the third placed side at the end of the season.

Saturday 23rd January 2016 - Russian 4. PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Magnitogorsk.
Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk v Slavyansk-SGPI Slavyansk-na-Kubani
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Anvar Fomin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Artem Veretennikov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Narek Romashkin, David Arabachyan, Vitaliy Yermakov, Artem Ivanov, Alexandr Stepanov.

Abdulla Zilpukarov failed a fitness test, so young right back Artem Veretennikov would continue to sit on the bench as cover. With both left backs in front of him suspended, Anvar Fomin makes his first Senior start. Alan Kotsyubinskiy returns to the matchday squad, taking Fomin's place on the bench, and new striker Vitaliy Yermakov is available for the the first time and is also selected for bench duty, taking Vladimir Matveev's spot. While the snow may have been cleared off the playing surface, there were still banks of the white stuff around the outskirts of the park, and the temperature was down to -8c at kick off.

Slavyansk were expected to cause us problems today, and they did, but not quite how we expected. They clearly arrived with an intention to spoil, and they defended very deeply for large parts of the early phase of the game, intent on frustrating our forwards. It was the 25th minute when they ventured forward, and Artem Zherebin made a tackle and quickly sprung their offside trap with a ball over the top that sent Kirill Uryupin away from their defenders. He broke into the box, but a combination of having the ball on his weaker right foot and defenders chasing back at him led to his cutback being overhit. The ball was recovered by Konstantin Kamenskiy, who fed it to Alexey Suzov, which was saved by Rinat Kuzin, and Vladimir Iljin fired the rebound into the side netting from a tough angle.

Despite not scoring, we had lifted our own spirits by finding an opening, and now we really set about our visitors. Ten minutes later, a Vladislav Evseev corner was chested down expertly by centre back Zherebin, who then sent a low shot towards goal, Kuzin making another save to turn that one around the post. Moments later, and our reward finally came. Iljin provided the necessary pass, slipping the ball between the defence to allow Uryupin to run in on the same angle as earlier, but this time he got it onto his left foot, and sent a shot past Kuzin's legs and inside the far post to open the scoring.

We carried that lead into the break, and I warned my players against complacency, telling them to expect Slavyansk to open up a bit more and come at us in the second half now they were a goal behind. In fact, it was ourselves who started the second half with on the front foot. Iljin sent in a corner that Evseev volleyed at goal, Mikhail Revazov kicked it off the line. Iljin recovered the ball, and sent it to the edge of the box, Timur Gogolidze took the ball, dropped his shoulder to move away from a defender, and then sent a curling shot in, that flew past Kuzin, and crashed back off the upright.

Slavyansk were spoiling their own good work in midfield with poor attempts at through balls, and Zherebin and Dmitry Yagodinskiy were mopping them up very easily. At the other end, Uryupin was still getting into good positions, and Iljin was still finding him, but again Uryupin was on his right foot, and this time his shot was blocked. I saw Anvar Fomin and Pavel Kryukov both get booked, but when it came to making changes, I took off Zherebin, who had worked so hard at the back and needed a rest. Gogolidze and a quiet Suzov also came off, with Alan Kotsyubinskiy making his return from injury, and Vitaliy Yermakov doing the same to make his club debut.

Evseev, no doubt aware that Alexandr Patokin was nearing a return to the First Team, looked keen to impress today, and with five minutes left, he showed fantastic control to take down a long pass from Kamenskiy, and then showed great feet as he evaded three defenders while moving inside from his wing, and then switched the ball left to Uryupin with a superb pass using the outside of his right boot. Uryupin sent the ball back inside to Iljin, and he found the feet of Yermakov, but his low shot was gathered by Kuzin to deny the Ukrainian a debut goal. It was one of those days where we were probably more comfortable than the score suggested.

Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (1) 1 Slavyansk-SGPI Slavyansk-na-Kubani (0) 0
Scorers :- Kirill Uryupin (38)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin (Vladislav Philippov 71), Anvar Fomin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze (Alan Kotsyubinskiy 71); Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov (Vitaliy Yermakov 71).
Attendance :- 991. Man of the Match :- Kirill Uryupin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

A huge victory, if not on the scoreboard. Our visitors managed just a single shot on target, and we had nearly 70% of the possession. We might not have got the amount of goals our play deserved in this match, but I was impressed with the performance of my playeres all the same. I just hoped we could do the same again on Tuesday night in our short turnaround to our next fixture. The fans were delighted to get a first look at 23 year old Vitaliy Yermakov after he made his club debut in a cameo performance off the bench for twenty minutes. Kirill Uryupin was our main threat today, and as well as getting the only goal, he was also awarded his seventh man of the match award of the campaign. It's now thirteen League matches without defeat, and our good run continues, pushing us closer and closer that what must surely be an inevitable reward of promotion now?

[neilhoskins77]

January 2016.

Volgodonsk and Balakovo continued to cancel each other out, now even managing to get the same scorelines. Both were held too 2-2 draws, with Volgodonsk failing to beat Kuban Barannikovskiy, and Balakovo held away by the Energetik Uren side that would travel to face us on Tuesday in our rescheduled League match. They weren't the only ones to drop points from the chasing pack however, Spartak Kurgan drew, Krasnoznamensk and Spartak Shuya both lost, all of which allowed Salyut to make some ground back after finally getting back to winning ways with a home win over Astratex.

Kirill Uryupin is showered with praise for his performance in Saturday's victory over Slavyansk. Hopefully he can produce a similar kind of level of play in our next match, a quick turnaround for our rearranged home match with Energetik Uren that was cancelled a bit over a week ago due to the heavy snow in Magnitogorsk. The box office at the stadium are estimating that we may get our first four figure attendance since our home match with Balakovo in early November. Our opponents come into the match in 11th place in the League.

Tuesday 26th January 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Magnitogorsk.
Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk v Energetik Uren.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Artem Veretennikov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, David Arabachyan, Alexandr Patokin, Artem Ivanov, Vitaliy Yermakov.

Abdulla Zilpukarov passes a pre match fitness test today, but is left out of the squad today, and will be given some time in the next Reserve match. Artur Yamgurzin is pitched straight back into the starting lineup at left back after his suspension though in the only change to the eleven from Saturday's match. On the bench, Narek Romashkin drops out of the matchday squad, losing his place to Sasha Palatnikov, who will be looking to make his club debut. Alexandr Patokin is also back in contention and comes onto the bench for this match, replacing Alexandr Stepanov is the squad.

We turned the screws early on the visiting Energetik side, and Alexey Suzov could have had us in front inside ten minutes, good work from Vladislav Evseev saw him find a way to get the ball to Vladimir Iljin, and he sent a pass through the defence with Suzov doing really well to hold his run and stay onside, but less well with the finish, that curled just over the angle of post and cross bar. Five minutes later and another chance came our way, with Timur Gogolidze picking a superb raking pass to send Kirill Uryupin in on the corner of the box, but his shot flashed across the face of the goal.

Energetik were being pushed deep into their own half, and goalkeeper Svyatoslav Osadchuk was almost being used as an extra defender, as they were using him to clear the ball from danger time and time again as our forwards harrassed their defenders. He had more work to do in the 18th minute, as Uryupin checked inside his defender and drove a shot at goal to try and beat him on his near post, but Osadchuk held it fairly easily. A few minutes later, and he was picking the ball out of his net. Evseev sent Suzov down the right channel, and the striker reached the ball, and then held it up well. He rolled it back towards Evseev, who's cross to the far post was fired home by Uryupin to give is a 20th minute lead.

Pavel Kryukov picked up a booking, an event that was becoming increasingly regular from our Captain at right back, and midfielder Konstantin Kamenskiy picked up an injury to his toe. He played on however, and was involved in our second goal in the 35th minute. He was found in acres of space in midfield by Uryupin and drove forward, almost making it to the edge of the box before being challenged, and he passed to Iljin. The veteran forward picked his pass with expert timing, sending it to Evseev, who skipped away from a half hearted tackle by Leonid Kohlin, and slotted his shot low past the keeper to double our advantage. Uryupin was clearly in the mood to add to his total, but in first half injury time, he really should have sent the ball across goal instead of shooting himself, as his shot was the wrong side of the upright and into the side netting.

It's not very often I make changes at half time, never mind all three changes at the break, but that's what happened today. Konstantin Kamenskiy had no reason to struggle through the second half of a match we were clearly in control of, and Sasha Paltnikov came on in his place for his debut. At the same time, I decided to give another airing to our newly developed 4-2-1-3 attacking formation, and withdrew Iljin and Evseev, which meant Uryupin moving into the middle to play behind the strikers, and Artem Ivanov and Vitaliy Yermakov came on to join Suzov up front. Our opponents also made their three changes at the break as well.

It would be fair to say our half time changes had a much more immediate impact on the match. Artem Zherebin headed a cross clear, and Timur Gogolidze found Palatnikov. He sent a long ball to Suzov who had moved into the left channel, and headed the ball down to Artur Yamgurzin. The ball was switched again, with a long cross field pass that picked out Artem Ivanov on the right of the box. His low cross fell between two defenders, and neither got their feet sorted to clear the ball, and they were made to pay by Vitaliy Yermakov, who lashed the ball high into the net from six yards out to open his account for the club. Our interest in adding more seemed pretty limited, and it was safe to say that our visitors enthusiasm for the match had long since waned. That was a very good performance from our players.

Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (2) 3 Energetik Uren (0) 0
Scorers :- Kirill Uryupin (20), Vladislav Evseev (35), Vitaliy Yermakov (49)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy (inj - Sasha Palatnikov 45), Timur Gogolidze; Vladislav Evseev (Vitaliy Yermakov 45), Vladimir Iljin (Artem Ivanov 45), Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 989. Man of the Match :- Timur Gogolidze (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

Fortunately it's just a stubbed toe for Konstantin Kamenskiy, and he will only be out a week or two at most. The competition for places in our midfield is certainly hotting up, with Sasha Palatnikov making his debut, and Timur Gogolidze earning the man of the match award. It might not be a great time for any of our players from the centre of the park to be going down with injuries or earning suspensions, as getting back in the side might not be as easy as it has been in the past.

In the only other match of the day, Salyut's return to winning ways didn't last to long, as they are held to a draw away from home against Kuban Barannikovskiy. Our win over Energetik means we're now on a new club record of twelve games unbeaten in all competitions. In League action, we have now gone fourteen without defeat. All the signs point at us being the team to beat, with top ten side Sodovik Sterlitamak the next club hoping to bring a halt to our impressive form.

[neilhoskins77]

January 2016.

Competition for places is hotting up, and those who are not getting a regular game are starting to make their feelings known. Vladislav Philippov feels that it's about time he started getting his share of starts in the side. He is told that he will need to do a better job of the starts he does get to move either Zherebin or Yagodinskiy from their regular spots for any real length of time. Full back Abdulla Zilpukarov is back in training after his pulled hamstring kept him out of the squad for nearly a month.

We would finish January with a trip to visit 8th placed Sodovik, who were very expected to provide us with a stern test of our credentials. They will also have a huge amount of support in the stadium as well, as our hosts have the second best average attendance this season on our Division, attracting an average home turnout of just under 3,000 per match, attendance figures we can only dream of at the moment.

Saturday 30th January 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Sodovik Stadium, Sterlitamak.
Sodovik Sterlitamak v Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Artem Veretennikov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Sasha Palatnikov, Narek Romashkin, David Arabachyan, Vladislav Evseev, Artem Ivanov, Vitaliy Yermakov.

There are two changes to our starting lineup for this match. Konstantin Kamenskiy's stubbed toe rules him out of this match, with his place in midfield taken by Alan Kotsyubinskiy, which in turn led to Narek Romashkin getting recalled to the substitutes bench. The other change is a straight switch, with Alexandr Patokin taking over the right wing slot from Vladislav Evseev, who takes his place on the bench. Windy and snowy conditions make the temperature feel even more brisk than the -10 air temperature when the match kicks off.

The temperatures had not deterred the crowd from showing up, though they would see their home players make some bad passes in the early stages and would no doubt be grateful that were too slow out of the blocks to capitalise on those mistakes. That said, we should have been a goal to the good with fifteen minutes on the clock. Timur Gogolidze chased back well as his opponent tried to cross halfway, and his well timed sliding tackle knocked the ball back into the path of Artem Zherebin. The centre back arched a through ball over and around the defence, and Alexey Suzov got the jump on the backline, chasing the ball into the box, drawing out the susperstar named home keeper Igor Akinfeev, and then slotting past him, unfortunately the shot was the wrong side of the far upright.

If Suzov's effort had been close, then Sodovik's first chance of note just after half an hour certainly wasn't, Alexandr Obyvanets getting past Pavel Kryukov and finding the feet of Georgy Guseinov. The striker did well to get beyond the challenge of Dmitry Yagodinskiy and into the box, but he didn't trouble Valery Golovchanov or the goal, firing well off target. His wastefulness would be punished just ten minutes later. Alan Kotsyubinskiy sent a long ball from the centre circle out into the left channel, where Suzov chased it down, before slipping a short pass to Kirill Uryupin just inside the box. The winger skipped away from two challenges on his way to the byline, and when a third defender arrived, he pulled it back across the box, where Gogolidze took a touch to settle it, and then fired a low shot past Akinfeev and inside the near post. his fifth strike of the season.

A goal behind at the break, the home side used all three of their changes, somewhat surprisingly leaving on their hobbling forward Eduard Ladygin who had picked up a knock in the first half. The changes didn't result in a change of fortunes, and an attempt to find Ladygin was picked off by Zherebin, who played the ball to Suzov on halfway. The striker sent the ball to Uryupin who set off at pace, jinking in and out to tease the defender while waiting for a target to get into the box. That target would be Suzov, and the winger sent the cross into his path. Defender Sergey Rusyaev looked very much the favourite, but Suzov launched himself at full stretch across the frozen surface, and got enough of a toe on the ball to divert it beyond Akinfeev and into the bottom corner, with less than three minutes played since the restart.

The striker had his 38th goal of the season, and five minutes later, he moved onto 39, though Artrur Yamgurzin managed to find time to get a booking in between the strikes. Most of our play had come from the left so far, and we repeated the trick once more, with Gogolidze sending the ball to Uryupin, who continued to give the home right back a torrid afternoon. He moved inside him this time, and swung in a similar cross to the one he had delivered just five minutes earlier. This time Suzov was well in front of his markers, and he connected with his left foot from just six yards out, leaving the keeper helpless to do anything about the score clicking up to 3-0. That made it a hatrick of assists for Uryupin for the afternoon.

With the game seemingly won, we seemed to switch off a bit, and Golovchanov was called into action to turn Guseinov's shot around the post. But the resulting corner was floated to the near post by Aidar Storozhuk, and powerfully headed home by Vadim Leontjev, a goal which looked to bring Sodovik back into the match with well over half hour left to play. That situation would change quickly though. Kotsyubinskiy was booked after giving away a free kick, which our hosts duly wasted. It was launched up the park, but as Insar Mukhutdinov tried to send back upfield, he hit the ball right at Suzov. The striker chased the ball down into the left channel, held it up and slipped it to Uryupin, and the winger pinged it across goal, where veteran forward Vladimir Iljin met it with a powerful half volley that found the net and reinstated our three goal advantage.

Iljin's tenth goal of the season ripped the heart not only out of the home side, but of the match as any kind of a contest as well. I started to slowly introduce my substitutes, starting with Sasha Paltnikov replacing Timur Gogolidze just after the hour mark. Kotsyubinskiy was next to come off, replaced in the 74th minute by Narek Romashkin. And with just nine minutes left on the clock, Artem Veretennikov was rewarded for his patience after sitting on the bench for the last few matches, introduced in place of Pavel Kryukov to make his First Team debut, partly done with my knowledge that that he would soon be returning to the age group side with Abdulla Zilpukarov on the way back, and I preferred to send him back with at least a taste of Senior football action. Sodovik hadn't been able to provide the stern test we were expecting today.

Sodovik Sterlitamak (0) 1 Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (1) 4
Scorers :- Timur Gogolidze (43), Alexey Suzov (48,53), Vladimir Iljin (59)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt - Artem Veretennikov 81)), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Alan Kotsyubinskiy (Narek Romashkin 74), Timur Gogolidze (Sasha Palatnikov 61); Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 2,986. Man of the Match :- Kirill Uryupin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

Another very good performance, away from home against a side who had been unbeaten in their eight previous League matches. Another one of our young guns makes his bow in the Senior side as well, as mentioned, a reward for his patience in recent weeks. The backroom staff believe Artem Veretennikov is a potential future First Team regular for us, and he'll now return to playing for the age group side, and the Reserves, and hopefully he can continue to impress. Kirill Uryupin was fabulous for us today, and was unlucky to only be credited with three assists, when it should have been four. I wonder how many goals Alexey Suzov would have without the wing play of Uryupin?

It's now fifteen matches without defeat, and our ominous form continues. Volgodonsk are held 2-2 away to Astratex, while Balakovo notch a 2-0 home win over Fabus. The only other sides that are in the hunt that managed wins are Spartak Shuya and Slavyansk. Meanwhile, much further up the ladder, another manager loses his job, and this time I'm installed as the favourite for the job. Zenit-Izhevsk Izhevsk are right in the middle of the third tier, but are starting to slide down the table, winning only two of their last twelve, and gaining just eight points over that period. The Board take action, and sack Igor Menschikov. It would certainly be a step up, the club may only be less than five years old, but they are playing in an 18,000 all seater stadium, and they have some talented players in their ranks. But it's not enough to turn my head right now, and I reaffirm my loyalty to my current employers when asked about the job.

The month ends with an unhappy player, and it's midfielder David Arabachyan who is disillussioned at falling down the pecking order in the centre of the park. In probably the most competitive position in the squad right now, Arabachyan feels it may be time to move on if he isn't going to be afforded the opportunity to play at Central. I tell him that I'd rather see him put in the effort to earn his spot, and for him to show a little patience, but he isn't interested in that, and it seems he may on his way out of the club sooner rather than later.

[neilhoskins77]

2015/16 Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14 League Table. Up to & Including Sunday 31st January 2016.

| Pos | Inf   | Team                      | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | GD    | Pts   | 

| 1st |       | Metallurg Magnitogorsk    | 32    | 21    | 9     | 2     | 76    | 34    | 42    | 72    |  
| 2nd |       | Balakovo                  | 32    | 17    | 7     | 8     | 41    | 37    | 4     | 58    |  
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
| 3rd |       | Volgodonsk                | 32    | 15    | 12    | 5     | 43    | 29    | 14    | 57    |   
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
| 4th |       | Energia Chaykovskiy       | 32    | 13    | 13    | 6     | 51    | 34    | 17    | 52    |  
| 5th |       | Slavyansk                 | 32    | 14    | 7     | 11    | 38    | 32    | 6     | 49    |  
| 6th |       | Spartak Kurgan            | 32    | 13    | 9     | 10    | 44    | 43    | 1     | 48    |  
| 7th |       | Spartak Shuya             | 32    | 13    | 9     | 10    | 52    | 43    | 9     | 48    |  
| 8th |       | Krasnoznamensk            | 32    | 12    | 9     | 11    | 42    | 39    | 3     | 45    |  
| 9th |       | Sodovik                   | 32    | 11    | 12    | 9     | 40    | 40    | 0     | 45    |  
| 10th|       | Titan Moscow              | 32    | 10    | 12    | 10    | 47    | 41    | 6     | 42    |  
| 11th|       | Salyut                    | 32    | 10    | 12    | 10    | 39    | 41    | -2    | 42    |  
| 12th|       | Biokhimik-Mordovia        | 32    | 10    | 11    | 11    | 38    | 41    | -3    | 41    |  
| 13th|       | Reformatsia               | 32    | 10    | 11    | 11    | 39    | 44    | -5    | 41    |  
| 14th|       | Kuban Barannikovskiy      | 32    | 11    | 8     | 13    | 38    | 43    | -5    | 41    |  
| 15th|       | Energetik Uren            | 32    | 10    | 10    | 12    | 36    | 41    | -5    | 40    |  
| 16th|       | APK Azov                  | 32    | 10    | 9     | 13    | 45    | 44    | 1     | 39    |  
| 17th|       | Velmash Luki              | 32    | 9     | 12    | 11    | 30    | 32    | -2    | 39    |  
| 18th|       | Fabus                     | 32    | 10    | 8     | 14    | 35    | 51    | -16   | 38    |  
| 19th|       | Oasis                     | 32    | 7     | 15    | 10    | 46    | 44    | 2     | 36    |  
| 20th|       | Irtysh Tobolsk            | 32    | 7     | 14    | 11    | 31    | 35    | -4    | 35    |  
| 21st|       | Kuban Slavyansk-na-Kubani | 32    | 9     | 8     | 15    | 39    | 53    | -14   | 35    |  
| 22nd|       | Dinamo Izhevsk            | 32    | 8     | 8     | 16    | 32    | 48    | -16   | 32    |  
| 23rd|       | Spartak Anapa             | 32    | 6     | 13    | 13    | 26    | 37    | -11   | 31    |  
| 24th|       | Astratex                  | 32    | 4     | 10    | 18    | 30    | 52    | -22   | 22    |

 

[neilhoskins77]

Merry Christmas everyone, or 'Веселого Рождества' as they say here in Magnitogorsk. Wishing you all and your families and friends a great festive break, and a happy and healthy 2017. Thanks for reading.

-------------------------------------

February 2016.

The new month gets off to a good start for the club. A local steel company is keen to get involved with the side, and have paid just short of £9,500 to have their company name on the front of our shirts as a new main sponsor for the next two seasons. Hopefully, this is the first step in the clubs off the field progress. The Board remain delighted with the way the club is being run, particularly our League form. A profit of close to £10,500 for January means the finances look pretty stable, with a bank balance of somewhere around £43,500 as we go into the new month.

The first action of February on the park for the club comes a few days into the month, and features our Reserve side hosting ORTO Izhevsk at Central. For just the third time this season, our second string side pick up a win, coming out on the favourable end of a 2-1 scoreline to climb off the foot of their Group. A first half goal from Vladimir Matveev had us ahead, but it was all square again by the break. In a side with several fringe First Team players picked, Narek Romashkin grabbed the winner with an individual effort in the 77th minute, but suffered a groin strain shortly after. He will now be out for the next month or so.

Our seemingly routine pattern of one player returning from injury as another gets injured has continued, as the day after Romashkin was injured, left back Evgeny Korota returned to training after suffering with a virus. He'll be available should we need him for Saturday's match in the League against Oasis Yartsevo. Betting on us to beat the current occupants of 19th place in the League would not make you a rich person, the bookies were that sure we'll overwhelm our visitors.

Saturday 6th February 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Magnitogorsk.
Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk v Oasis Yartsevo.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Zilpukarov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Evgeny Korota, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, Artem Ivanov, Vitaliy Yermakov.

Konstantin Kamenskiy returns to the side, with Alan Kotsyubinskiy dropping down the bench, and Narek Romashkin dropping out of the matchday squad for today's match. David Arabachyan is also dropped from the squad, with Evgeny Korota brought into the squad in his place. The cold weather had abated somewhat, replaced instead by strong winds and persistent drizzly rain.

We didn't start very well, looking somewhat lacklustre in the early stages, and not helped by returning midfielder Konstantin Kamenskiy picking up a suspension activating booking just three minutes in. It could have gotten worse just moments later, Svyatoslav Zhdanov intercepted a through ball from Alexandr Patokin, and then played a long ball right down the centre of the park. Dmitry Yagodinskiy easily got to the ball first, but his attempted backpass to Valery Golovchanov was dramatically underhit, and Artur Chernyshev nipped past him to get to the ball on the edge of the box, only to fire his shot wide of the upright. The same forward was involved moments later, chesting the ball down and laying it off to Zelimkhan Lazarev, who's shot across goal bounced back off the face of the far upright.

Our fortunes didn't improve as the first half progressed, and when we did manage to pull ourselves together enough to get on the attack, we were picked off on the counter attack midway through the half. Pavel Kryukov's short throw found Patokin, who tried to get to the dead ball line, but was cut off. He had the ball taken off him, and could only then watch when it was heaved down the park to halfway and found Chernyshev. The striker evaded Yagodinskiy easily, and then driving forward with a run that took him down the left channel of the box and to the goal line, before cutting it back across goal. Vyacheslav Sharipov couldn't get a connection to it, but Tamerlan Statsenko didn't miss, side footing the ball inside the near post and putting the visitors a goal ahead.

With a one goal lead to defend, Oasis became even more stubborn in defence, and our fairly routine attempts at through balls from midfield were being blocked or cut out quite easily. When we did manage to weave a way through, Alexey Suzov's finish brought a smart low stop out of visiting keeper Radik Samarin. Soon, the keeper was called into action again, this time a through ball cut the defence open, and Kirill Uryupin tried a low shot inside the near post, Samarin turning that one away as well. It might have been one of the worst halves of football we had played this season, but we someone still managed to in level at the break. Chernyshev was dispossessed by Artem Zherebin, and Kamenskiy got the ball to Timur Gogolidze. Then it was quickly sent wide to Uryupin, and the winger angled his run into the box, before squaring it to Suzov. The strikers effort was blocked well by Samarin, but he could do nothing about Uryupin slotting home the rebound to level the match in first half injury time.

Uryupin's 15th goal of the season had us level in a match that we didn't deserve to getting anything out of to this point, and the players were read the riot act at half time. Kamenskiy came off after his first half booking, with Sasha Palatnikov coming on in his place. The change made an impact, as within ten minutes of the restart, we had the lead. Uryupin again made a run down the left, and this time crossed towards the edge of the penalty box, where Gogolidze headed it down. He sent it right to the feet of Sasha Palatnikov, and he shifted the ball onto his right foot, took a touch to make some space, and then sent a low shot beyond the reach of Samarin and into the bottom corner to put us in front, his first goal since arriving at the club a month ago.

When the ball hit the net, you could see the energy drain right out of the Oasis players. We had not only broken their defence, but we had broken their spirit. As the weather lifted, the game became more and more ragged, and in the 72nd minute I made my remaining changes, replacing Vladimir Iljin and Suzov with Artem Ivanov and Vitaliy Yermakov. The truth was, we could have carried on playing that match for hours, and Oasis wouldn't have troubled us. They knew they had missed a really good chance to overturn us. A late booking for Pavel Kryukov also puts him out of the next match, but we had got a win that looked unlikely earlier in the afternoon, and I praised my players fighting spirit after the match.

Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (1) 2 Oasis Yartsevo (1) 1
Scorers :- Kirill Uryupin (45+1), Sasha Palatnikov (54)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy (Sasha Palatnikov 45), Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin (Artem Ivanov 72), Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov (Vitaliy Yermakov 72).
Attendance :- 995. Man of the Match :- Timur Gogolidze (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

Usually, when a player comes to the office with a gripe, I let them know who is boss, and answer assertively. It's a slightly different situation when the player marching into the office is the top scorer in the League, and the man responsible for nearly half of your sides goals this season. It was also worth keeping in mind that he has no contract, so I would certainly need to tread carefully with Alexey Suzov. Our star striker was not happy with that half time team talk, feeling it was a bit over the top. I told him that I thought the tone was necessary, but that I had no intention of causing offence and would keep it in mind for future reference. He seemed happy enough with that. It looks like my striker might be of a sensitive nature.

Timur Gogolidze's performance in midfield earned him the man of the match award, and Sasha Palatnikov came on and bagged the winner with a long range shot. It's not the best timing for Konstantin Kamenskiy to pick up a booking, his tenth of the season, and a two match suspension. Pavel Kryukov will be out for the next one as well, though his is just a one match sideliner. We have now won our last five League matches in a row. Like I said before, getting back into the side once you're out of it may not be quite as straighforward as it was earlier in the season.

Balakovo earn a slim 1-0 win away from home against Spartak Kurgan, while Volgodonsk are held at home to a 1-1 draw. Engergia Chaykovskiy earn a home win over Krasnoznamensk, while Slavyansk are beaten at home by Sodovik. There is a home win for Salyut as they once again try to get a run of results going to push themselves back towards the promotion race.

[tenthreeleader]

You gotta watch those team talks. Some of my special snowflakes have reacted poorly to being told they're pants in my saves too. Well done staying onside with your star.

 

[neilhoskins77]

On ‎28‎/‎12‎/‎2016 at 22:19, tenthreeleader said:

You gotta watch those team talks. Some of my special snowflakes have reacted poorly to being told they're pants in my saves too. Well done staying onside with your star.

 

You're not wrong TenThree. As a rule, I don't generally take too kindly to players stepping forward like this, very much a case of 'I'll take care of my job, you just concentrate on yours'. However, a change of tactic is always worth considering when you're dealing with a League leading goal scorer on an amateur contract.....

[neilhoskins77]

February 2016.

Our next game would be a winable looking trip to face Reformatsia. They lost on the weekend against APK Azov, breaking a four match unbeaten run that had been their best of the season by quite some way. I was hoping we would have a new player on board before that match, but was left suprised when 22 year old centre back Rustam Kokoskeria knocked us back. I was even more surprised when I discovered he had picked another tenth tier club over us. That was until I started looking at the club, and then it all made sense. Metallurg Stary Oskol play in Group 10, and have made our fine form this season look comparitevly poor put against theirs. They have yet to lose a League match this season, winning all but two of their 33 games so far, and those two matches brought draws. Even in February, they are just a few more wins away from securing their place in the ninth tier next season. I can't quite make up my mind if I hope we play in the same Group as them, and start up a real rivalry, or stay well out of their way.

Vyacheslav Valeev, the clubs Reserves Manager, believes we're underestimating the abilities of keeper Dimitry Galyuk. He believes the 22 year old could improve significantly if he was afforded some First Team football, and has encouraged me not to forget about him. With an amateur contract, therefore no option for a loan move, Galyuk has been starved of competitve action since being dropped in favour of Nikita Semenov, and then pushed further down the queue when Valery Golovchanov arrived. Valeev, in his first role in the game, and in demand himself from other clubs, believes Galyuk would be a capable keeper for us even if we earned promotion.

The third choice keeper remains outside of the matchday squad when we start our preparations for the away fixture with Reformatsia Abakan. The club in 14th place have won three of their last five at home, though their away performances have been significantly less impressive. They can however, lay claim to being the best supported club in this Division, boasting the best average attendance for their home games, with a figure north of 3,000.

Saturday 13th February 2016 - Russian 4. PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central Sportcomplex Sayany, Abakan.
Reformatsia Abakan v Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Abdulla Zilpukarov, Dmitry Yagodinskiy (capt), Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Sasha Palatnikov, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Artem Veretennikov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Evgeny Korota, David Arabachyan, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, Artem Ivanov, Vitaliy Yermakov.

With suspensions taking the skipper, Pavel Kryukov, and Konstantin Kamenskiy out of the lineup, there is a rare start for Abdulla Zilpukarov, and a first start for Sasha Palatnikov in the middle of the park. Those changes mean a return to the matchday squad for young right back Artem Veretennikov, and unhappy midfielder David Arabachyan, with both amongst the substitutes for this match, which would get away in snowy, windy conditions, and the temperature down at -7c.

With the warning that I expected an improvement from last time out ringing in their ears, the players warmed things up with a blistering start. Stand in skipper, Dimitry Yagodinskiy picked up a booking with less than two minutes on the clock, but Reformatsia wasted the free kick, and we counter attacked, Kirill Uryupin looking menacing already on the left, and he picked a pass to Timur Gogolidze, who rolled his defender and then fired a shot that bounced back off the post. The opener wasn't far away though, and was assisted by the keeper, Amir Abdulavov, struggling to get his goal kicks towards the halfway line kicking into the strong wind. Uryupin picked the wayward kick up, and strolled down the left wing, before sending the ball back to Gogolidze. The midfielder sent a curling cross towards the edge of the box, and Alexandr Patokin had espcaped his marker by coming off his wing, and sent a side footed volley low into the net.

That 8th minute goal was just what the team needed, and they continued to push themselves forward. In the 12th minute, Gogolidze lifted a corner towards the six yard box, and Mikhail Mishura was penalised for handball. Alexey Suzov grabbed the ball, and placed it on the spot. The striker showed real composure, rolling the ball effortlessley into the bottom corner of the net, leaving the keeper stranded, and notching his 40th goal of the season. We continued to steam forward, and could have possibly had another penalty before the break when Artem Zherebin went down under a challenge as we attempted to meet Vladimir Iljin's corner. Kirill Uryupin struck a shot into the side netting from Patokin's cross, before Gogolidze continued his fine form with a through ball that Suzov sprinted onto, and the striker slid his shot low past the keepers feet to put us firmly in control at 3-0.

The players were simply told they had done a great job, and to keep it up at the half time break. They returned to the park to find the heaven's had opened, with the snow that had been falling giving way to a heavier sleet, making the surface of the pitch treacherous for the players to manage. Reformatsia tried to bring themselves back into the match, Eduard Kulov curling a free kick into the box, sub Timur Lykov finding enough room to bring it down, and sent a shot goalwards, Golovchanov had sprung off his line and made a superb block. Abdulla Zilpukarov cleared the ball away for a corner, which Lykov sent into the middle, Denis Gorelov connected with a header which flashed just wide of the far post.

The foot had come off the gas somewhat as the second half progressed, the passing wasn't as slick, and if we hadn't held such a commanding lead, our hosts may have been encouraged more that a way back into the game was still possible. Gorelov curled a pass into the box, and no one matched the run of sub Artur Krug, but again, Golovchanov was quick off his line, firstly to narrow the angle, and then to block the effort. I reacted by making three changes, replacing Zherebin, Gogolidze and Iljin with Vladislav Philippov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy and Artem Ivanov.

I would quickly regret making all three changes together, as Artur Yamgurzin was hacked to the floor right in front of the dugout. He wasn't injured, but he was furious, even more so when the culprit of the foul escaped punishment. Within seconds of play restarting, and said culprit getting on the ball, Yamgurzin was straight on him, and grabbed a large enough handful of his jersey to nearly take it off his back before settling for dragging him to the floor. It did nothing to improve his mood when he was booked for that. With no changes remaining, I yelled at him to calm down, but the red mist was already in place, and he was listening to no one. Lykov delivered a free kick that evaded everyone, but Gorelov chased it down and kept it in play. He then stood up a cross towards the back post, and as Ruskhan Makaganov made his move towards it, Yamgurzin declined to defend the ball, and instead bodychecked the midfielder to the floor. The official pointed to the spot, and gave Yamgurzin his second caution within moments, sending him on a walk back towards me with a wave of the red card. I shook my head as he stormed defiantly past me, and then returned my glare to the goalmouth, where Kulov sent the ball back into the very spot that Alexy Suzov had picked out from the same penalty spot well over an hour earlier.

It was perhaps a bit fortunate for us that almost right from the restart, Anatoly Pershakov was forced from the park with an injury, so any fleeting thoughts of an unlikely comeback were curtailed for Reformatsia. That fact didn't make me any less disappointed with my first choice left back though, however my options to deal with him were extremely limited.

Reformatsia Abakan (0) 1 Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (3) 3
Scorers :- Alexandr Patokin (8), Alexey Suzov (13 pen, 43)
Valery Golovchanov; Abdulla Zilpukarov, Dmitry Yagodinskiy (capt - Vladislav Philippov 76), Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Sasha Palatnikov, Timur Gogolidze (Alan Kotsyubinskiy 76); Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin (Artem Ivanov 76), Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 2,987. Man of the Match :- Timur Gogolidze (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

In a quiet room, right next door to the visiting dressing room, Artur Yamgurzin was left in no doubt as to how angry I was with his poor discipline and judgement in the latter stages of that match. He had already had several minutes to compose himself and gather his thoughts while the match finished without him, and now his regret was clear. He apologised unreservedly, and then went and did the same to his team mates. He had been told then when we got back home, we could expect to receive a letter issuing him with a formal warning regarding his on the park conduct. He nodded, and indicated that he would everything he could to improve that aspect of his game.

Onto the positives, and that match was a marked improvement on our previous outing, the first half particularly was a joy to watch at points. Timur Gogolidze created two more goals, and picked up another man of the match award with another superb display. The victory was our sixth in a row, and pushed us onto 15 matches without defeat in all competitions, 17 if you look at League matches only. Balakovo won at home to Salyut, but Volgodonsk would slip up yet again, losing away to Velmash Luki. The club that had been the early pacesetters, and looked almost unbeatable in the early part of the season, were now suffering a run of form that was threatening to take them out of the promotion picture entirely.

By contrast, for ourselves, a new club record mark of six consecutive League wins had put us in a very healthy looking position. We would now go into a very big week for the club, and that doesn't necessarily refer to our fixture list, though we do have a home match against the unpredictable Krasnoznamensk side. No, this event was an important one for the future of the club, and would maybe give us our first indication of what progress, if any, we had made this season as far our reputation as a football club in this city was concerned.

[neilhoskins77]

February 2016.

You might think that with the exception of those involved, and the supporters of those clubs, no one is really paying attention to football at this level. The day after Valentines Day, that was shown to not quite be the case. The impressive form of Metallurg Stary Oskol was highlighted in the last update. They have now lost their top goalscorer, as 28 year old striker Vasily Shatalov has been poached from them. They tried their best to keep him, but they found themselves competing for his services with a professional club from one of the new money Leagues. Anchored to the bottom of the Uzbekistan Oliy Liga, are FJ Qo'qon. Although they are only a point away from climbing off the bottom, four clubs go down, and with just six matches left, they are twelve points from safety. It's entirely possible they have accepted their fate, and are preparing their assault to return to the top tier. They have a huge squad of players, and may well be anticipating the departure of several of their top players should relegation be confirmed. As for Shatalov, you could see the attraction for him. He would play his football at a much higher level, even if his new employers went down, and he would pick up a wage as a professional footballer. Qo'qon immediately valued him at around £185k, a figure likely to bring a frown to the face of Stary Oskol's accountant, who had just seen the player leave without so much as a penny being received in return.

Those events taught me that if we get an opportunity to go semi professional, we need to grasp it, as we don't want to be in a position where an Alexey Suzov or a Timur Gogolidze walk out of the club for nothing. It also highlighted that you never know who's watching, and which doors may open in the future. On Wednesday, our Reserve side travelled to Sterlitamak to face the second string representatives of Division rivals, Sodovik. For the first time this season, our lads won consecutive games, coming away with a 2-1 win after goals from Vladimir Matveev and Alexandr Stepanov. The win moves them up one place in their League, and Semyon Kulakov is awarded man of the match. There was some collateral damage in the win, with young centre back Marat Shashkov damaging a heel in a heavy tackle, and will miss two to three weeks of football. On Friday, the build up begins for the First Team's home match against Krasnoznamensk, who currently occupy 9th place in the League.

But that would take a backseat to a meeting deep in the bowels of Central on Friday afternoon, where all eyes were on the clubs Head of Youth Development, a certain Petr Britovskiy. If he was nervous about being the man with all the answers at such an important meeting, sat in front of every prominent person involved with the club, he hid it well. After telling everyone who was waiting on his news to relax, it was going to be a good day, he got to the information. The clubs Youth Intake for 2016 was, he believes, a very successful one. Sixteen players, all aged fourteen, and every single one of them from the city of Magnitogorsk, had accepted offers to have a trial with us here at Metallurg. What's more, several of them also had offers, which they had rejected, to trial for the club on the other side of stadium. As the smaller club, that was a huge win for us. In fact, Britovskiy announced, only one player he had targeted had declined the offer of a trial with us, striker Alexey Shetakov will trial with FC Magnitogorsk instead.

Britovskiy believes the cream of the crop is right winger, Gennady Markov, who he believes can become a top tier player if developed correctly. Rustam Shestakov, the clubs Coach, has picked out goalkeeper Alexandr Zhdankin and left back Oleg Tikhonov as his picks as the ones to watch. After going through the files of the players myself, I'm predicting bright futures for 6'6 centre back Vadim Stepanov, left winger Alexandr Yudin and striker Yury Belov. Our current Under-18's will provide the opposition for the Youth Candidates on Sunday, and after that, a decision will be made on which of them are offered deals to stay with the club. Attention would soon turn back to the First Team, and Saturday's important League match.

Saturday 20th February 2016 - Russian 4. PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Magnitogorsk.
Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk v FC Krasnoznamensk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Abdulla Zilpukarov, Dmitry Yagodinskiy (capt), Artem Zherebin, Evgeny Korota; Sasha Palatnikov, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Artem Veretennikov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Konstantin Kamenskiy, David Arabachyan, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, Artem Ivanov, Vitaliy Yermakov.

Pavel Kryukov is still suspended, so Abdulla Zilpukarov deputises once more at right back, while on the other side of the back four, Evgeny Korota comes into the side after Artur Yamgurzin's red card last time out. Konstantin Kamenskiy is returning from his suspension, but has been unable to budge Sasha Palatnikov from the starting lineup for this match, having to settle for a place on the bench instead, taking the place left by Korota's inclusion. In similar conditions to last weeks match, there is a strong wind sweeping across the park, bringing flurries of snow with it, and adding a little extra bite to the already frigid temperatures.

The temperature wasn't the only thing with a bit of bite to it. From the off, the tackles were flying in, with Abdulla Zilpukarov lucky to escape a booking with less than 30 seconds on the clock. A minute later, Fedor Krotov nearly put Kirill Uryupin into the front row, and the ref acted this time, showing a quick yellow card. He was followed ten minutes later by Zilpukarov, he continued with his tough tackling start to the match. It was five minutes after that before the first real chance of the game arrived, and we should have took the lead. A corner from Timur Gogolidze was flicked onto the far post, where Dmitry Yagodinskiy not only kept it in play, but got it back across goal, finding centre back partner Artem Zherebin, who was prevented from notching the opener by a superb point blank save by Anatoly Nikitin.

Another corner from Gogolidze moments later was headed clear by Dmitry Murtuzov, but Alexandr Patokin retrieved the ball, and we went about setting the play back up again. Gogolidze got the ball back near the edge of the box, and he managed to drop his shoulder and wriggle away from a defender, sending the ball into the left channel for Uryupin. The winger made like he would cut inside, and then surged around the outside of the defender, before firing towards the near post area, Nikitin getting a piece of it, but able only to help it on it's way into the net. The goal at least broke up the string of bookings, with Evgeny Korota the next to have his name taken by the ref midway through the first half. The corner certainly appeared to be the most dangerous weapon for both side, and with their's Krasnoznamensk almost scrambled an equaliser, Denis Lischuk's delivery, Nikolay Vorobjov poking it goalwards, Zherebin managing to get a foot to it on the line, Korota completing the clearance.

We might be in front, and the side looking in control, but I was wary that we weren't able to put the goals on the board that we had been doing in previous months. I was right to be concerned too, as with less than two minutes our opponents had levelled up the match. From centre back, Murtuzov played the ball to Anton Kiselev, and the midfielder strode through the centre circle untouched, before sending the ball between our centre backs to find David Anisimov, the striker placing his shot into the top corner, leaving Valery Golovchanov helpless to do anything to stop it.

I was furious, not just with them scoring, but how easy they had found it to do so. I yelled at my players from the touchline, telling them to get their heads back in the game, but they were working in the wrong areas, and frustration was setting in, with Sasha Palatnikov the latest to earn himself a yellow card. Ten minutes later, Yagodinskiy cut out a pass into our box, and sent it up the park to Vladimir Iljin as we launched a counter attack. He slotted an angled pass in for Alexey Suzov, the striker showing his strength to hold off a defender, but only hitting the post with his shot. From the corner, Gogolidze found Korota at the near post, and he flicked it on to Uryupin, the winger hitting a volley that substitute keeper Ramil Rybalov punched clear on the line.

With things not going our way, and just fifteen minutes or so remaining, I had my changes warming up to try and swing the game back our way. As they watched on from the sidelines, Korota caught Vitaly Ovsyankin with an elbow as they both jumped for the ball, and the ref deemed it worthy of a yellow card, which was our left back's second, leaving us down to ten men yet again. Kirill Uryupin would move back into the left back slot, Yagodinskiy was replaced by Vladislav Philippov, and Vladimir Iljin came off for Vladislav Evseev, who would go to right wing, with Alexandr Patokin switched out to the left.

It seems to be the time for left backs to pick up cards, and that includes stand in's, as Uryupin gets booked just two minutes after moving into the back four, earning himself a suspension right as the already booked Palatnikov was being replaced by Konstantin Kamenskiy. But that would be the least of our problems. With the match into injury time, Lichuk sent a corner into the near post, and centre back Ruslan Shpitalny connected with a shot that beat Uryupin as he guarded the post, flying off the upright, behind Golovchanov, and into the net just inside the opposite post. Our long run had come to an end, and we had no one to blame but ourselves.

Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (1) 1 FC Krasnoznamensk (0) 2
Scorers :- Kirill Uryupin (18)
Valery Golovchanov; Abdulla Zilpukarov, Dmitry Yagodinskiy (capt - Vladislav Philippov 74), Artem Zherebin, Evgeny Korota; Sasha Palatnikov (Konstantin Kamenskiy 77), Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin (Vladislav Evseev 74), Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 993. Man of the Match :- Ruslan Shpitalny (FC Krasnoznamensk).

'The run is over, and the promotion race is back on' proclaimed the media that do follow this level of football, barely able to contain their glee. Obviously, it was only a matter of time before we suffered a defeat, but to do it in a home match is disappointing, to not even be able to say we were simply beaten by a better side, was more of a blow. We didn't look ourselves, and we didn't play well at all, particularly in the second half.

Evgeny Korota becomes the second left back in successive weekends to be issued with a warning after seeing red, and he will be joined in a one match suspension by Kirill Uryupin, who picked up his fifth booking of the campaign. In the big game of the day, Volgodonsk lose at home to Balakovo. As well as losing more ground to their rivals for a promotion place, they have now also dropped out of the Playoff spot, as Energia Chaykovskiy leap over them into third place with a convincing win over Dinamo Izhevsk.

[neilhoskins77]

February 2016.

As the weekend draws to a close, so does the Transfer Window, with just one week remaining for us to make any signings. At this point, I saw it as very unlikely that we would be delving into the transfer market again before the season finished. Despite our form becoming less dominant, and our superb unbeaten sequence ended as a result, I still felt we had enough about us to finish the job and secure our place at a higher level of football next season, with eleven games left to negotiate. One team who certainly didn't need to worry about new signings, or even promotion now, for that matter, was Metallurg Stary Oskol. With another win on the weekend, and other results going in their favour, they had now secured their place in 3.PRSLFK next season. We needed to make sure we got back to form as soon as possible, and got our place booked to join them.

The new recruits who we all hoped would be the future of our club would get their first opportunity to impress on Sunday lunchtime. After just a few short days on trial with the club, and with some good training behind them, the Youth Candidates would take on a team consisting mainly of our current Under-18 players. The newcomers were superb, winning 3-1, with Vyacheslav Solovjov netting a hatrick, and several other players putting in very good performances as well. There were a couple of fifteen year olds who were turning out for Under-18's, and two of them put in good performances as well. After the match, a meeting takes place between myself, Petr Britovskiy and Rustam Shestakov. It is not a long, or difficult meeting at all. It is quickly decided that all sixteen of our Youth Intake are to be offered amateur Youth deals with the club, and in addition to that, the two fifteen year olds from the Under-18 side will also be offered deals as well. It's fantastic to see these exciting days for the youngsters start at our club, and hopefully Britovskiy can find another great group of talent this time next year, though I do let him know that we'll be much more critical with our judging next season. Only the players as good, or better, than the ones we have, will be considered. The bar has been set.

After saying that transfer activity in the latter part of the window was unlikely, I then launched an audacious bid to bring Kyrgyzstani International striker, Almazbek Mirzaliev, to the club. The 28 year old has five caps, and in reality, without being able to offer him a full time contract and some wages, we were always going to struggle. He was at least polite enough to thank us for our interest, but he still shunned us to sign a contract with his previous employers, and leading domestic club, Alay Osh. The current Champions are able to offer their new striker some continental football in the Asian Confederation Cup. With a promotion charge looking a possibility, Energia Chaykovskiy do a great job in managing to keep hold of two of their key players, with both Sergey Popov and Evgeny Masalev both rejecting offers to go elsewhere, and staying with the club, for now at least.

Dmitry Galyuk's frustrating season continues. Just weeks after being pushed forward to possibly challenge for a place back in the matchday squad, he injures his ankle in training, meaning he'll sit on the sidelines for a couple of weeks just as the new recruits have arrived, with teenage newbie Alexandr Zhdankin already looking the part. Further up the pecking order, not all is well in the goalkeeper ranks. Since arriving at the club, and taking his place as starting keeper, Valery Golovchanov has been tutoring Nikita Semenov. That arrangement has just come to a shuddering halt, with Semenov stating that a clash of personalities has rendered his relationship with Golovchanov on the brink, and that it's best for all concerned that the tutoring is put to an end.

The newly stocked Under-18 squad get their first chance to make an impression on Thursday afternoon, with an away match against the age group side of SibGUFK Omsk. Nine of the new intake start the match, joining up with a couple of the already established young players. Gennady Markov is picked out as the best player for us, setting up a second half goal for Vyacheslav Solovjov in our 2-1 defeat. The young striker has certainly hit the ground running after his treble in the trial match. It's an away match for the First Team to finish the month of February, against a Spartak Shuya club who now have a new title sponsor since we beat them 3-0 at Central at the end of September. A surprise addition is made to the matchday squad as well for this game.

Saturday 27th February 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Vladimir Metelskiy Stadium Trud, Shuya.
Spartak-Telecom Shuya v Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Abdulla Zilpukarov, Dmitry Yagodinskiy (capt), Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Sasha Palatnikov, Timur Gogolidze; Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin, Alexandr Patokin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Artem Veretennikov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Konstantin Kamenskiy, David Arabachyan, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Gennady Markov, Artem Ivanov, Vitaliy Yermakov.

A couple of changes are required to the starting lineup, with Artur Yamgurzin returning at left back, his suspension expiring in time for him to replace Evgeny Korota, who is unavailable for the same reason. Further up that side of the park, Kirill Uryupin is also banned for this match. That means a return to the starting lineup for Vladislav Evseev, who takes the right wing spot, with Alexandr Patokin moving across to the left. Despite being available again, Club Captain and right back, Pavel Kryukov, is left out of the matchday squad today, with Abdulla Zilpukarov continuing on that side of the back four, and Artem Veretennikov remaining on the bench. Speaking of the bench, a winger is required to sit on the bench for this match, and it's delighted fourteen year old Gennady Markov who is brought along for that role. His shocked, but very proud father, comes along as part of the travelling party, hoping to see his son become the youngest player in the clubs history.

A slip at the vital moment from stand in Captain and centre back, Dmitry Yagodinskiy, almost gifted the now name sponsored Spartak-Telecom the lead after just ten minutes, but Nasyr Akimov failed to find the target, his shot beating both Valery Golovchanov and the far upright. A run of three bookings in seven minutes followed, with two of them going to our white shirted players, recent serial offenders Artur Yamgurzin and Sasha Palatnikov both having their names taken again. All was well in the 24th minute, though, as Timur Gogolidze picked up the ball on the attacking edge of the centre circle as the play came from our right into the centre. He lifted it high into the cold air, dropping it over the defence, and perfectly into the space for Vladislav Evseev to run into. As he reached the byline, he sent in his cross, ignoring Alexey Suzov in the middle, and instead aiming for Alexandr Patokin a bit deeper into the box. The wingers first touch took him slightly more central, and crucially, away from the attending defender. His second touch saw him connect with a low shot that picked out the bottom corner, with Aslan Gerk quite possibly unsighted by a group of players in front of him.

All was looking well, for around 70 seconds anyway. As right from the restart, Spartak went up the park and won a corner. Sergey Ignatjev sent it across, inswinging towards the near post, where Akimov connected with a header that flew between Golovchanov and the defender on the post, and high into the net, to level the match immediately. My teams apparent lapses in concentration had struck once more, and I was furious that we had given away another lead. From the touchline, I urged my players to respond, and they seemed to increase their efforts to reassert their superiority. They were rewarded before the break, with Patokin starting and finishing the move. He collected a short throw from Yamgurzin, and pinged his pass quickly into midfield for Vladimir Iljin. Some crisp, short passing through the middle eventually led to Gogolidze picking up the ball, and he sent it into the left channel of the box. Patokin was quicker in feet to reach it before the backtracking defender, and quicker in mind, shaping to pick out the same bottom corner as earlier in the half, and then whipping his foot around the ball and sending it inside the near post instead with a powerful low shot. His second goal of the match had us taking a lead into the break.

Our hosts made two changes at half time, which included taking off their twice beaten keeper, Aslan Gerk. They would make their third change early in the second half too. Ignatjev, supplier of the cross for their equaliser in the first half, nearly got lucky just after the hour, his floating centre from the right touchline was misjudged by Golovchanov, but Yagodinskiy was there to head it clear from right under his own cross bar. His header found Yamgurzin, who sent it up to Suzov on halfway. The striker held the ball up as the cavalry arrived to push ahead of him, and he then sent Patokin into wide open space on the left. The winger got it to Gogolidze, who picked out another great pass to Suzov, but replacement keeper Georgy Sesin repelled his effort to beat him at his near post, turning the low shot behind.

The changes would soon follow, done individually this time, as I attempted to make sure my players kept their concentration levels high, and also looked to stifle the life out of the game, while running some time down on the clock. Vladimir Iljin was first to be withdrawn after 70 minutes, replace by Artem Ivanov, who many believed would soon be taking the starting spot from the veteran forward. That was followed seven minutes later by the booked Palatnikov making way for Konstantin Kamenskiy. There was a booking ten minutes before time for Evseev, but the winger almost made ammends for that when he sped his way past a defender to cut into the box, and picked out Artem Ivanov on the far corner of the six yard box, but the subs shot was well charged down by Eduard Makarov. With five minutes left, Yamgurzin was caught too far up the park, and the ball was lifted over his head to set Akimov free. The striker angled his run nicely to get himself in on goal, but his shot flashed across the face of the goalmouth, and we breathed again. I made my final change with just three minutes left, withdrawing Evseev and making new youngster Gennady Markov the youngest player in the clubs history at 14 years and 37 days old. He wore the number 35 jersey onto the park, and could barely keep the smile off his face as he played out the last few minutes, sending in a cross from the right late on that Suzov just couldn't connect with. We were back on the winning trail.

Spartak-Telecom Shuya (1) 1 Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (2) 2
Scorers :- Alexandr Patokin (24,42)
Valery Golovchanov; Abdulla Zilpukarov, Dmitry Yagodinskiy (capt), Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Sasha Palatnikov (Konstantin Kamenskiy 77), Timur Gogolidze; Vladislav Evseev (Gennady Markov 87), Vladimir Iljin (Artem Ivanov 70), Alexandr Patokin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 953. Man of the Match :- Timur Gogolidze (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

While our performances have gone off the boil a touch, and not been anything like as dominant as they had been earlier in the season, 21 year old centre midfielder Timur Gogolidze has really turned the wick up a few notches, and has collected his fourth man of the match award in the spell of around one month. Right now, he's one of the first names on the team sheet, and I look forward to seeing him get better and better over the coming years. Meanwhile, Gennady Markov's father was on hand when the other members of the squad gave the youngster a round of applause on returning to the dressing room as the holder of a new club record. The young man showed his class by proudly handing over his shirt to his father as well, which brought tears to the eyes of the Metallurg fan. The winger declared himself delighted to have made his debut, but also recognised that he has a lot of work in front of him to become a First Team regular.

Elsewhere in the League, the tables turned somewhat in the pack chasing us down. Balakovo suffered their first defeat since mid December as they were beaten 2-0 at home to Kuban Slavyansk. That gave an opportunity for the two clubs behind them to make some ground, which they duly did, Energia Chaykovskiy and Volgodonsk were both away winners, against Kuban Barannikovskiy and Fabus respectively. Balakovo's defeat didn't do us any harm either, as it pushed us 14 points clear at the top of the table, and even more importantly, 19 points clear of third place Energia. With just ten games remaining now, promotion could be just a matter of weeks away from being secured.

Sunday was the penultimate day of this leap year February, and it was also Transfer Deadline Day. I had no intention of bringing anyone into the squad, but Eurosport spent the early part of the day reporting that we would be making a move for Ural Irbit's 42 year old midfielder and winger Vyacheslav Bakharev. When they had the bright idea of actually asking about it, I quickly set them straight and told them I had no interest in the player at all. They likely didn't believe me, but they would be shown it was the truth, when I left the stadium at 2pm and told them I was going home for the day. On the way out, I told the few local press hacks that remained that I anticipated a very quiet window, not just for us, but across the country. My interest only ever really got caught when a couple of players from Tajikstan were released by their clubs at the end of their domestic season, which seems to last for about four or five months. We had no chance of persuading them to join our cause without giving them a weekly wage. It was a non starter. The month ended on Monday with Uzbek striker Vladislav Aleksin returning to training, while young midfielder German Burlyaev left training, twisting his knee, and finding himself sidelined for the next six weeks or so.

[neilhoskins77]

2015/16 Russian 4.PRSLFK Group 14 League Table. Up to & Including Monday 29th February 2016.

| Pos | Inf   | Team                      | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | GD    | Pts   | 

| 1st |       | Metallurg Magnitogorsk    | 36    | 24    | 9     | 3     | 84    | 39    | 45    | 81    | 
| 2nd |       | Balakovo                  | 36    | 20    | 7     | 9     | 46    | 40    | 6     | 67    | 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
| 3rd |       | Energia Chaykovskiy       | 36    | 16    | 14    | 6     | 57    | 35    | 22    | 62    | 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
| 4th |       | Volgodonsk                | 36    | 16    | 13    | 7     | 47    | 33    | 14    | 61    | 
| 5th |       | Krasnoznamensk            | 36    | 15    | 9     | 12    | 49    | 42    | 7     | 54    | 
| 6th |       | Spartak Kurgan            | 36    | 14    | 11    | 11    | 50    | 47    | 3     | 53    | 
| 7th |       | Slavyansk                 | 36    | 15    | 7     | 14    | 44    | 42    | 2     | 52    | 
| 8th |       | Spartak Shuya             | 36    | 13    | 11    | 12    | 54    | 50    | 4     | 50    | 
| 9th |       | Sodovik                   | 36    | 12    | 14    | 10    | 45    | 44    | 1     | 50    | 
| 10th|       | Titan Moscow              | 36    | 12    | 13    | 11    | 56    | 44    | 12    | 49    | 
| 11th|       | Velmash Luki              | 36    | 12    | 12    | 12    | 38    | 37    | 1     | 48    | 
| 12th|       | Biokhimik-Mordovia        | 36    | 11    | 14    | 11    | 44    | 44    | 0     | 47    | 
| 13th|       | Reformatsia               | 36    | 12    | 11    | 13    | 43    | 49    | -6    | 47    | 
| 14th|       | Kuban Barannikovskiy      | 36    | 13    | 8     | 15    | 44    | 49    | -5    | 47    | 
| 15th|       | Salyut                    | 36    | 11    | 13    | 12    | 44    | 48    | -4    | 46    | 
| 16th|       | Fabus                     | 36    | 12    | 8     | 16    | 40    | 58    | -18   | 44    | 
| 17th|       | APK Azov                  | 36    | 11    | 10    | 15    | 47    | 51    | -4    | 43    | 
| 18th|       | Energetik Uren            | 36    | 10    | 12    | 14    | 39    | 46    | -7    | 42    | 
| 19th|       | Oasis                     | 36    | 8     | 16    | 12    | 51    | 51    | 0     | 40    | 
| 20th|       | Irtysh Tobolsk            | 36    | 8     | 15    | 13    | 35    | 44    | -9    | 39    | 
| 21st|       | Kuban Slavyansk-na-Kubani | 36    | 10    | 8     | 18    | 44    | 61    | -17   | 38    | 
| 22nd|       | Dinamo Izhevsk            | 36    | 9     | 9     | 18    | 38    | 55    | -17   | 36    | 
| 23rd|       | Spartak Anapa             | 36    | 6     | 16    | 14    | 28    | 41    | -13   | 34    | 
| 24th|       | Astratex                  | 36    | 6     | 12    | 18    | 37    | 54    | -17   | 30    |

 

[neilhoskins77]

March 2016.

The new month starts as it always does, firstly with a progress report from the Boardroom. The men in the suits are delighted with the progress the club is making on the park, and they now consider promotion to be inevitable for the club this season. They are slightly concerned that the atmosphere at the club has changed a little, referring to the ongoing issue between keepers Valery Golovchanov and Nikita Semenov. The club recorded a loss of £1,100 in February, but with the finances still over £40,000 in the black, the club is still looking in a fairly healthy position off the park as well. Vladislav Aleksin says he appreciates that his injury has made difficult to make arrangements to sell him, but as he is now back in training, he expects to see some movement on the promise. With an amateur contract, there will be no 'sale' for Aleksin, as far as I'm concerned, he can either play for the Reserves and try and find some form, or he can walk out. His chances of being here beyond the end of the season look slim for the Uzbek forward.

The club's first game of March takes place on the first day of the month, as our Reserves host a Dinamo Izhevsk club who will send their First Team here on the weekend. Their Reserves take the spoils on this Tuesday afternoon, coming from behind after veteran forward Vladimir Matveev had given our second string the lead early in the second half. At least when Dinamo arrive with their First Team on Saturday, they are likely to find a louder than normal reception waiting for them. The Board have finally taken shown initiative and come up with an idea to try and increase our attendances, and have announced that Saturday's match will be a 'fan day'. Any adult attending the game and paying the usual price, can bring a child along for half price. I'm assuming that means half of the usual child price, as surely they would usually pay around half of an adult ticket price anyway? The initial projections of increase in attendance, based on ticket sales, were not encouraging, only around 5% actually. It was hoped that walk up on the day would provide a boost ahead of a match we're very heavy favourites for, with our opponents in the bottom three, and very thankful there is no relegation from this League.

Saturday 5th March 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Magnitogorsk.
Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk v Dinamo Izhevsk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Zilpukarov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Evgeny Korota, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, Artem Ivanov, Vitaliy Yermakov.

We return to what would currently be considered as our strongest lineup. Pavel Kryukov returns at right back, with Abdulla Zilpukarov dropping to the bench, and Artem Veretennikov is sent back to be made available for the second and third string sides. Sasha Palatnikov is back on the bench, with Konstantin Kamenskiy taking his place in the starting lineup. Kirill Uryupin is back from suspension, and takes his place on the left wing. Alexandr Patokin moves across to the right, Vladislav Evseev is back on the bench, and Gennady Markov is sent back to the Under-18's.

It wasn't the happiest of starts for our lowly visitors, as they were forced into a change with less than ten minutes on the clock, striker Artem Lukashkin suffering a thigh injury, and replaced by Rustam Antoschuk. From a corner, Konstantin Kamenskiy was fed the ball back by Vladimir Iljin. The midfielder tried to put his cross right under the cross bar, instead managing to hit the bar itself. In the 15th minute, Kirill Uryupin had to drop deep to help out Artur Yamgurzin, and then sent the ball down the line, where Alexey Suzov had made himself available. He centred the ball towards the edge of the box, where Timur Gogolidze drove a shot, Vyacheslav Denisov bravely stood in front of it and blocked the thunderbolt effort. When the ball was recycled, Suzov played Gogolidze in, this time inside the box, but the midfielder shot just over the bar.

As we approached the midway point of the first half, Pavel Kryukov showed why he was ready to step back into the team, showing great anticipation and using it to break play up. He sent the ball to Goglidze, and he curled it into the right channel, where Alexandr Patokin chased it down. He then teased his marker, twisting and turning, before eventually electing for the outside route, where he managed to get to the byline. He then stood the ball up into a dangerous area in the centre, and from around eight yards out, Suzov showed strength, beating two defenders in the air, and heading the ball back across the goal and inside the post to give us the lead.

At the break, I told my players that guarding against complacency was a must in the second half ahead of us. That was why it was all the more annoying when Patokin was tackled by Eduard Radchenko, and the full back was allowed to send the ball down the touchline to Alexey Zhilkin. He played a one-two with just introduced half time sub Magomed-Shapi Salnikov before sending it to the touchline for Denisov. He sent a swinging diagonal pass over the head of our defence, and Salnikov had plenty of time to take it down, and then fire it low past Valery Golovchanov, and into the net.

The frustration didn't take too long to kick in, and it led to Kryukov, Patokin and Artur Yamgurzin all getting bookings within a fairly short space of time. The patient approach continued, and we were being roared forward with the biggest home crowd we had played in front of for a League match this season. The approach led to a reverse pass from Suzov into the path of Vladimir Iljin, who sent a shot past sub keeper Artur Mareev, but it bounced off the inside of the post, and back into the goalmouth, where visiting skipped Tuzem Lebedev hoisted it clear. With time running out, I made a triple change in the 81st minute, which would also mean a change in tactics. Gogolidze came off for Alan Kotsyubinskiy, while Patokin and Iljin were replaced by Artem Ivanov and Vitaliy Yermakov. The latter two would both go up front to join Suzov, while Uryupin would play behind the front three as we switched to our attacking 4-2-1-3 tactic.

Switching to this attacking role had been successful in the past, and it would come up trumps here too. Yamgurzin took a short throw to Suzov, and the striker sent it back to him. Our left back curled a cross into the far post, where Artem Ivanov managed to leap ahead of a defender, and planted his header into the top corner from six yards out, his first goal for the club, and it was set to be a match winner at a crucial time of the season. It was a good feeling, stood on that touchline, knowing that having the bravery to make the call had come up big for us on this day, and that maybe a couple of hundred young possible Metallurg fans had just had their first experience of the excitement this game can bring. And if they chose that path, they were now closer to supporting the club in a higher level of football next season, though they would have to watch Salnikov almost take some of those points away, striking a free kick that hit the top of the cross bar on it's way over the top.

Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (1) 2 Dinamo Izhevsk (0) 1
Scorers :- Alexey Suzov (22), Artem Ivanov (86)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze (Alan Kotsyubinskiy 81); Alexandr Patokin (Vitaliy Yermakov 81), Vladimir Iljin (Artem Ivanov 81), Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 1,244. Man of the Match :- Magomed-Shapi Salnikov (Dinamo Izhevsk).

An increase of nearly 25% in a League attendance at home, and an exciting match experience, fan day had been a success for us, and I hoped the Board were right when they said they believed that there may be some long term benefit for the club. We had a new generation of players waiting in the wings, hopefully we would now start to get a new generation of fans to watch them.

Those three points may well end up being more important that we realised at the time. Balakovo were held to a draw away to Irtysh Tobolsk. Then there were 2-1 home defeats for Energia Chaykovskiy and Volgodonsk, against bottom of the table Astratex and Spartak Kurgan respectively. That meant for us that a win in our next match, and defeats for Energia and Volgodonsk would secure us a promotion place. We were definitely getting closer to making the start of season dream come alive!

[neilhoskins77]

March 2016.

This could be a big week for the club, but we tried to keep everything as normal as possible in the build up. Under-18's midfielder Alexey Tarasov fractured his arm after a heavy fall in training on Tuesday, and will miss pretty much the remainder of the season. That starts with Wednesday's match against the side at the top of their Group, a trip to face Dinamo Mashinostroitel. Our youngsters put on a great show, picking up their first win in five matches, despite losing Narek Romashkin with a twisted knee before half time. They were two ahead by that point, with goals from left winger Alexandr Yudin and striker Denis Antonnikov. Left back and sub, Oleg Tikhonov got the third before the hour, before Dinamo managed to pull a goal back. The match also saw Islam Zarochentsev complete ninety minutes for the first time on his return from injury. Romashkin is added to the growing number of young players on the injury list, and he'll be out for around a month.

The young squad is bulked up a little more, as Petr Britovskiy brings in 15 year old attacking left back Konstantin Yevsyukov. It's a good move from our Head of Youth Development, as he starts to address the balance and bring in some older players to help with the fourteen year old newbies. Meanwhile, the First Team's deputy right back, Abdulla Zilpukarov is unhappy that he was dropped on Saturday to allow Pavel Kryukov back into the side. It's a difficult one to justify to Zilpukarov, all season I've been telling fringe players to be patient, and take their chance when it arrives. Now, our deputy right back did just that, so I don't try and justify myself, instead telling him that Kryukov is the better player. Naturally, he doesn't take that well. I can't say I blame him to be fair.

Kuban Barannikovskiy are our opponents this weekend, and they are currently about as mid table as you can get sat in 12th place. Kuban have a good record at home, and the bookies are playing it safe, not making us the overwhelming favourites that many may have expected by pricing us at 4/7. It had been quite some while since I'd been asked to do a pre match press conference, but there were a handful of journalists present on Friday before we made the trek for our away match. Eric Delap of Eurosport, who had given us quite a bit of coverage since our Kubok Rossii run earlier in the season, asked most of the questions. I told him that we had prepared for the match in the same way that we normally would, agreed with his assessment that both Alexey Suzov and Timur Gogolidze had been important pieces of the puzzle, and had been vital to our success so far this season, and finally that our away form was very pleasing, and that there was something very satisfying about travelling away from home and spoiling another clubs day. Hopefully, it wouldn't be our day that would be spoilt this weekend. There was a scare before we left, with unavailable centre back Vladimir Lomakin going down with a bout of food poisoning. Fortunately, it was contained to just the unlucky centre back.

Saturday 12th March 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Kolos, Barannikovskiy.
Kuban Barannikovskiy v Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Zilpukarov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Evgeny Korota, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, Artem Ivanov, Vitaliy Yermakov.

After last weeks late win at home, there are no changes to either starting lineup or matchday squad for this trip to Barannikovskiy. The players know the prize is there for the taking at the end of this match, if they can keep up their end of the bargain and results elsewhere go our way too. The weather is just starting to look towards turning Spring like, though temperatures are still around zero by the time kick off approaches. The strong winds of the last few weeks are still swirling however.

In the past few weeks, we have been guilty of lapses of concentration in defence. With two and a half minutes on the clock, this was more than that, this was just poor. A short throw went to Alexey Melnikov, and the winger had only one option in the box, and three defenders around him. Despite those poor odds, David Yeremeev moved a yard away from goal to create his room, and no one got anything like tight enough to him. When the cross came in, the 17 year old swung his boot at the low centre, and connected beautifully, his effort leaving Valery Golovchanov helpless, and we're behind.

On the touchline, and acutely aware there was a long way to go in this match, I attempted to keep my frustration bottled deep inside, going for the encouragement option instead, urging my players to settle down and play their game. Unfortunately, they didn't do the same, with tempers starting to flare, and the ref looking capable of losing control at any given moment. The problem partly stemmed from his refusal to book, or even penalise, anyone wearing anything other than a white with black pinstripe jersey. Artem Zherebin was first to get his name taken, quickly followed by Alexandr Patokin, who not only had a very viable penalty claim rejected, but was booked for diving to add insult to injury. His skipper, Pavel Kryukov was possibly a little fortunate not to join him after a very frank difference of opinions with the officials, but that was merely putting off the inevitable, as the right back went into the book just five minutes later. Despite my directions to try and reel in the tackling, the inevitable occurred a minute before the break, Melnikov planting himself into the ground as a long ball sought him out, and then waited for the arrival of Zherebin. The winger didn't just make a meal of it, he went for the full five course gourmet experience. The ref looked at him, then looked at Zherebin, shrugged his shoulders as if he had no choice in the matter, and then flashed a second yellow in the direction of our centre back.

Half time, a man down, and a goal down, and we didn't look like a side on the brink of clinching promotion anytime soon. Vladimir Iljin had been sacrificed, with Vladislav Philippov on in his place as we stayed with our usual formation and tactic, but without the shadow striker. I begged my players to show some common sense, and not give the officials any reason to reduce our numbers still further. Kuban, meanwhile, had made three changes and were looking like they were going to sit on this lead. We weren't standing for that however. With the hour mark just struck, and the snow starting to fall again as we entered the evening, we got ourselves going. Some passing that any side would be proud of on a surface of this quality, saw Konstantin Kamenskiy find the feet of Alexey Suzov near the edge of the area. Our striker held the ball up, then used his strength to roll his defender. But he still had no route to goal, so opted instead to slide a pass to Timur Gogolidze, finding the midfielders darting run, and he applied the finish too, sliding it low past the outstretched boot of sub keeper Klimenty Dubrovskiy, and inside the near post. It was his sixth League goal of the campaign.

That goal didn't bring Kuban out of their shell at all, despite their man advantage. In the 71st minute, I brought off both my wingers, Kirill Uryupin and Alexandr Patokin, and replaced them with forwards Artem Ivanov and Vitaliy Yermakov. There was no reason that I could see why we shouldn't go for it. If we were caught on the break, we were only really dropping a point, which may not matter a huge amount in the overall picture. Find a winner however, and we could be celebrating promotion in the next 20 minutes or so. With 82 minutes on the clock, Artur Yamgurzin took the ball in space on the left wing, and blasted by his defender, and got to the byline. His cross was deep, in fact, too deep, but the defender got a horrible contact on it, and the ball dropped to Suzov. Right now, there wasn't another striker in the world I wanted that ball to drop to, but Dubrovskiy flung himself in front of the low driven shot, and then repeated the trick to stop Artem Ivanov netting the rebound. It had never looked like being our day, and it wasn't going to be.

Kuban Barannovskiy (1) 1 Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (0) 1
Scorers :- Timur Gogolidze (61)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin (Vitaliy Yermakov 71), Vladimir Iljin (Vladislav Philippov 44), Kirill Uryupin (Artem Ivanov 71); Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 185. Man of the Match :- Konstantin Kamenskiy (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

Two thirds of possession, and limiting our opponents to just two shots on goal in the match, both of which were before we went down to ten men just before half time. I didn't really have much right to feel aggrieved with the draw, though I still did, certainly because we were so close, and I didn't want the crossing of the finishing line to become a long and drawn our process. If I had frustrations, they should have been in the direction of the officials, who were poor today. The questions after the match mainly regarded the physical nature of the match. I defended my players, and my tactics. 'We're not an overly physical side, and football is a contact sport, no matter how much some people don't want it to be. I don't agree with the red card, or even some of the yellow's today, but I can't do anything about it, or say anymore about it, or else I'll be getting a yellow card myself'.

Artem Zherebin is suspended for a match, he also gets the obligitory warning to go with his red card. It's the second time he has seen red this season, though the first was in the Kubok Rossii earlier in the season. He'll have company on the sidelines for the next match though, Alexandr Patokin has now reached five bookings as well, so he will also sit out next weekends match at home to Astratex. A home match with the side at the bottom of the table is about as perfect an opportunity as we could wish for at this stage to get the job done. Balakovo have won 4-2 to home to Spartak Anapa, closing the gap by two points. Energia Chaykovskiy have won as well, 1-0 away to Biokhimik-Mordovia. It looks like Volgodonsk are going to slip out of the race, even for a Playoff spot, as they have lost again, 3-1 to a Salyut side that have been in freefall in recent months. After a big week of anticipation, we need to do it all again in the coming week.

[neilhoskins77]

March 2016.

Right now, a game against Astratex is not the gimme that it has been earlier in the season. They lost at home to APK Azov on Saturday, snapping a six game unbeaten run that had been the best form they showed all season, and kept them in with a shout at least of climbing from the foot of the table before the season drew to a close. We'll need to be on our toes, we can't afford the sloppy defending that has meant no clean sheets in any of our last seven games.

Following his outburst in the office, Abdulla Zilpukarov is now looking to force a move away from Central if he isn't granted regular First Team football. He's going nowhere until the season is over, and ideally, he would accept the situation and stay, but he has no wish to do that, as he now considers himself to an equal at least to Pavel Kryukov on the park. I don't see it that way, but I do consider him a very capable backup. I'd rather sort this issue out behind closed doors, but Zilpukarov has made the issue a very public one, dragging our disagreement through the sports press and I'm not sure there is any going back now.

Our Under-18's and Reserves would both face the same opponent during midweek, FC 999 Izhevsk. The Under-18's went first on Tuesday at Central, young striker Yury Belov hit a first half double, but they brought on left winger Daud Yemeljanenko at the break, and he created two second half goals for the visitors, who earned themselves a draw, though our youngsters are still in the top half of the table. The following day, our Reserves went out to Izhevsk and were beaten 2-0, a goal in each half condemning them to defeat despite having their fair share of the possession. 14 year old left back Oleg Tikhonov was pushed up to play for the second string side, as was our stand out player, making some important tackles and interceptions, and showing a good turn of pace as well.

It doesn't look like 'fan day' was a success as far as future attendances are concerned. There has been no impact at all on our match week ticket sales, so unless walk up on the Saturday afternoon has increased dramatically, it has not yet had the desired impact. We're not the red hot favourites that you might expect, despite being at home in a top versus bottom clash, and with everything that there is at stake. It's our second chance to get the job done, at least in terms of keeping up our end of the bargain. If there was any consolation from last weekend, even if we had won, we still wouldn't have been promoted.

Saturday 19th March 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Magnitogorsk.
Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk v Astratex Astrakhan.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Vladislav Philippov, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Zilpukarov, Nikita Semenov, Islam Zarochentsev, Evgeny Korota, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Mikhail Israilov, Artem Ivanov, Vitaliy Yermakov.

Two changes are required due to the suspensions for Artem Zherebin and Alexandr Patokin. That means a start for Vladislav Philippov at centre back, with 18 year old Islam Zarochentsev called up to take the spare place on the bench. Vladislav Evseev is called into the starting lineup to replace Patokin on the right, and there is a first call up into the matchday squad for fifteen year old winger Mikhail Israilov.

These bad starts have just got to stop! We're definitely improving though, this time it took a whole five minutes for us to get sliced right open. When Astratex took a free kick quickly, we were guilty of not facing up or organising ourselves quickly enough. Denis Ban'kov took it, and found Taras Kudryashov. With panic all around him in our defence, he slid it into the path of Albert Krutelev, who lifted it over the advancing Valery Golovchanov and put us a one goal disadvantage. Right there, on the touchline of that horrible, rutted playing surface, I resolved that we'd strengthen our defence this summer.

One thing I won't need to bring in this summer is resolve and tenacity. We have plenty of that, and less than a quarter of an hour later, we were right back in the game. Konstantin Kamenskiy had to work to earn his crossing room, but he did that, and sent a high and looping effort into the box. The defence of the visitors stood in a line just about fifteen yards out, waiting for the flag to go up. It didn't, and Alexey Suzov caught the ball on the half volley as it dropped, leaving Roman Poddubskiy out to dry, and the game back at even. Now we were in complete control, and looking like the side we had been earlier in the season, forcing Astratex back further and further down the park, and when they tried to get out, they simply couldn't find a way through Kamenskiy and Timur Gogolidze. Another goal looked a matter of time, and it arrived five minutes before the break. Vladimir Iljin sent it down the left for Kirill Uryupin, but his cross was too deep. Vladislav Evseev retrieved it, and sent it into the near post area, where Suzov took a touch to control it, and then he swept it low into the net.

Our visitors made their changes, mostly defensive ones, while I told my players that it was all there for them today, and if they just simply did what they had been doing all season long, we could make today the day we got over the line. Replacement keeper, Danil Mikhailov, had to make a great save from Uryupin to prevent us going two in front just minutes after the restart, a superb passing move getting the left winger into a great position. That save merely delayed the inevitable, the keeper pushing a Uryupin shot against the inside of his own upright, though it looked like it had crossed the line and found the net before a defender got a touch to send it along the goal face. No matter, Uryupin had followed in, and applied the finishing touch to make sure, and now we were 3-1 to the good.

Iljin received a booking on the hour, and that made him a prime contender to be substituted off. I had my replacements all warming up as I thought through my options. While dealing with that, Astratex pulled a goal back. Batraz Barashkov played a one-two with Arthur Boikov, and then sent a low cross through the goalmouth. If Golovchanov had received a shout, he didn't hear it, or didn't listen to it. He had two defenders in close proximity, it would have been an easy clear for them, but Golovchanov pushed it away from his goal, and the pair of defenders, and right into the path of Krutelev, who gleefully smashed home his second of the afternoon, and brought the bottom of the table club right back into the match.

I pushed ahead with my planned changes, brining off Iljin for Artem Ivanov, and a tiring Vladislav Philippov was withdrawn, with young defender Islam Zarochentsev coming on for his Senior bow. The game settled back into it's pattern, Evssev getting booked, Kamenskiy replaced by Alan Kotsyubinskiy, and Pavel Kryukov earning himself a yellow too. There were almost exactly seven minutes remaining when Yegor Larin sent a pass down the touchline on the right to Krutelev. There looked to be no danger at all when he curled a diagonal pass into the centre. But there was danger, as all of my defenders left it to each other. By the time they spotted the danger that everyone else inside Central had now seen, they all seemed to be wading through treacle, while Ban'kov looked like an Olympic sprinter. He raced onto the ball, and reached it on the edge of the box, rounding Golovchanov and then placing the ball over the sliding figure of Dmitry Yagodinskiy who was trying to keep it out, and high into the net. A hush fell around the stadium, as everyone, and I do include myself in that, tried to work out quite how this had gone wrong. I moved us quickly into our 4-2-1-3 attacking formation, having to improvise and pushing Kotsyubinskiy up to join Suzov and Ivanov. No miracle late goal today though. I had questions, and plenty of them.

Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (2) 3 Astratex Astrakhan (1) 3
Scorers :- Alexey Suzov (19,41), Kirill Uryupin (52)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Vladislav Philippov (Islam Zarochentsev 70), Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy (Alan Kotsyubinskiy 76), Timur Gogolidze; Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin (Artem Ivanov 70), Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 996. Man of the Match :- Albert Krutelev (Astratex).

75 minutes. That's not how much of this match we dominated. It's the amount of time the players were kept locked in the dressing room after the match while I read them the riot act. It would have been half of that time frame, but most of what I said needed to be translated. My grasp of the language had not yet stretched as far as 'The last half hour of that was f*****g apalling! You switched off yet again, you thought the job was done, and you paid the price! I'm furious with you lads! You owe myself and the staff a performance!'

So as far as I can see, one of three things has happened here. Either my players just switched off, the foot came off the gas too much, and they threw away a two goal advantage. Maybe, after nearly an entire season playing the same way, our opponents have started to figure us out, and we need to look at other options to freshen things us. The other possibility is that being so close to the finishing line, my players have just suffered a case of the good old fashioned jitters. How many times have we seen that over the years at all kinds of levels of football?

When I emerged from the dressing room, I was expecting there to be no-one else around. I was very wrong. In fact there appeared to be more people around than usual, and I would soon find out why. A local reporter asked me what the squad had made of my sudden announcement that I was leaving the club. I thought I'd lost the question in translation, fortunately Danny Roelfs of Eurosport was there to help me out. He explained that when everyone had been locked in the dressing room for such a lengthy period of time, rumours had started to circulate that I had handed in my resignation to the club following the reports from Northern Africa that I was the front runner for the job in Tunisia. I literallly had no idea what he was talking about......

[neilhoskins77]

March 2016.

I might not be the best person to explain what actually happened here, as I was in a locked dressing room giving some Russian swear words an airing. Usually, if there are any rumours doing the rounds, I hear about them. Keeping in mind that I'm not getting paid, I've grown accustomed to keeping my ears open for opportunities in the football world, and keep myself in the loop with what's going on, and where I'm being linked with next. On a day where my focus was solely on this single match, I had missed quite a lot it seemed.

At a time of the year when domestic seasons start to draw to a close in traditional Leagues, and begin in plenty of other locations around the world, it's not uncommon for International sides to look at their options before Qualifying tournaments start or resume. It seems South Africa and Gibraltar have done just that, with both apparently interested in my services. Bafana-Bafana are looking for someone to lead their Under-20's as they prepare for their assault on the age group version of the Cup of African Nations, which starts it's Qualifying format in April. In the past, jobs in the Gibraltar organisation have been, quite frankly, a poison chalice of International football. With little depth, no top end players, and little in the way of organised development due mainly to a lack of facilities, improvement still looked a long way off. Now there is a new development to assist the tiny nation of little Britain on the Spanish peninsula. There is a new trend in Gib football, and that is their better players no longer striving unsuccessfully for moves to the UK. Instead, they have been moving in their handfuls to the nearby North African nation of Morocco, searching for a higher level of domestic football that could speed up their development to a rate never seen in Gibraltarian football. Their Under-21's already have three players taking advantage of this new route, and their FA are looking for a new name to lead that age group side. Interesting.

But it was the Tunisia link that had got the press adding two and two together and coming up with a number that made little sense, especially to me. There was no rational explanation as to where that link had suddenly sprung from, and it had even got to the point where my employers had taken to issuing a statement, saying that they would be disappointed to lose their manager when on the brink of an unexpected promotion, but they could see the opportunity that awaited me with Tunisia, and they could never hope to offer such power or riches as the Tunisian FA had at their disposal. There was one small problem however. The Tunisia job wasn't actually vacant. 69 year old Polish manager Henryk Kasperczak was, as far as anybody knew, very much still alive and kicking. What's more, he had led Tunisia to a so far unbeaten Qualifying campaign for the early 2017 edition of the Cup of African Nations, and they were a mere one point from booking their ticket to Gabon. The vacancy for a job in Tunisia, was with the Under- 23's, who had failed to qualify for the summers Olympic Games tournament in Rio, and as such, had no fixtures for the foreseeable future, and no pressing need to employ anyone. By the end of the day, there wasn't a job in South Africa either, as they appointed 31 year old former International player Siboniso Gaxa to the role. The 55 times capped former Lierse and Kaizer Chiefs defender retired last summer when his contract with the Chiefs expired. If I was going to be dipping my toes into the waters of International football anytime soon, then it appeared it would be the water of the Strait of Gibraltar.

Back to the important business. In good news, the point against Astratex guarantees us a Playoff place. I suppose it is good news, though if we found ourselves in the Playoff place when the season ended, I would be far from happy. The better news was another young player making his Senior football bow at our club, this time eighteen year old Islam Zarochentsev. The centre back suffered a sprained ankle at the start of the year, and his return from injury has seen him turn out some fine performances for both the Reserves and Under-18's. His appearance as a substitute was a reward and encouragement for that. Pavel Kryukov spoke to the press and confirmed firstly that the changing room door was locked for 75 minutes after the match. He was unable to elaborate why, stating that the boss 'looked angry', but that he was none the wiser what the hell the rant had been about. Balakovo lost, Engeria won. Those two play each other next time out, and wins for ourselves and Balakovo would move us from a confirmed Playoff club into a confirmed automatic promotion place.

The bad news is that we have to wait two weeks for that match. We'll also have another suspension to deal with when we do get back into action, as Vladislav Evseev has now reached the five bookings mark as well, triggering a one game suspension for the wide player. Current third choice keeper, Dmitry Galyuk, has recovered from his damaged heel, only to suffer a back strain while lifting weights. This latest blow will keep him out for around 5-6 weeks. Artem Ivanov and Vitaliy Yermakov come to the office within hours of each other, both pleading their case for more regular First Team football. They are both given the same answer, that Alexey Suzov is in too rich a vein of goalscoring to be dropped right now. Both accept the answer, pleased that there is a valid reason and that they haven't been forgotten. Ivanov is the more likely to get a regular game, though it will be slightly deeper on the park. He is very close to forcing me to drop Vladimir Iljin. Now 47, his form has tailed off quite considerably from his early season efforts. It's not an easy decison to make, as the veteran has far surpassed our expectations of him this season.

Our Under-18's are back in action, travelling to face Gornyak Kushwa. After going a goal down within three minutes, Kirill Vlasov levels the match within minutes. The forward then added a second shortly after the half hour, and Alexandr Yudin increased the advantage further with a 71st minute strike. Our hosts did pull one back in injury time, but our age group team had earned another win, taking their unbeaten spell to three matches. They did suffer an injury during the match, with midfielder Vladislav Kuznetsov suffering bruising to his head following a clash with an opponent in an aerial challenge. One of our other young players is not a happy lad right now. 18 year old keeper Nikita Semenov has stated his desire for a move, believing his chances of First Team football here are now slim. He may, or may not be correct. The jury is still out on the teenager who wasn't superb when he did get First Team football earlier in the season, and eventually lost his place to Valery Golovchanov.

Our Reserve side will be without 20 year old Oleg Yurchenko for around 10 days or so after he suffers blisters in a training session. It's very unlikely that his absence is the biggest reason for our second strings humiliating 6-0 home defeat against their counterparts from Dinamo-Novovyatich Kirov at Central on the penultimate day of the month. Vyacheslav Valeev told me that his players were nothing short of awful in the match, which saw his Reserve side sink back to the bottom of Group 60 as the sides around them got results that were enough to lift them above his side. Konstantin Yevsyukov will be out for a couple of weeks with a facial injury that forced him to leave the match at half time.

March is over, and Spring is almost ready to hit Russia. I'm hoping the new month sees a return to our top form, and that we can do some springing of our own. We're still waiting to clinch promotion, and then there is the matter of the League Title as well. It would be nice to put a piece of silverware on display somewhere at the club. Up to this point, there has been no need for us to have a trophy room at the Stadium.

April 2016.

Biokhimik-Mordovia would be our next opponents, and if it was to be the day we clinched promotion at last, one thing for sure is that there wouldn't be many people there to see it. At their Svetotekhnika home, they have one of the worst average attendances in the League, with around 170 the figure they generally expect for their home matches. With just one win in their last five, the bookies believe today will be the day. That said, most eyes, including some of the Metallurg fans eyes, will be on the match between Balakovo and Energia. A draw in that match would not only leave us promoted today should we win, but would also put us right on the brink of the Title to go with it.

The Board are still more than pleased with how the season has gone, though for the second month in a row, we lose money, once again we drop around £1,000 from our bank balance. Nothing to worry about, but disappointing that we're not able to make some gains in the finance department, and showing clearly that we're still quite some way from being viable as a semi-professional outfit by the seem of it. The pre match press conference focuses largely on the amount of players I've used in the First Team during the campaign, which currently is 35. I defend that, stating that I won't apologise for rewarding young players who I feel have done well with the feeder sides with some First Team action, especially when it's at a level I feel they can deal with.

Saturday 2nd April 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Svetotekhnika, Saransk.
Biokhimik-Mordovia Saransk v Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Artem Ivanov, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Zilpukarov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Evgeny Korota, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Mikhail Israilov, Vladimir Iljin, Vitaliy Yermakov.

Most teams would be apprehensive about playing on an artificial surface, but that doesn't necessarily apply to us. With a short passing game our strong point, playing on this surface should be an absolute breeze compared to the awful pitches we usually have to cope with, and I very much include our own in that. Artem Zherebin returns, which means that Vladislav Philippov drops back down to the bench, with Islam Zarochentsev moving back down to the Reserves. There is also a return at right wing for Alexandr Patokin, but with Vladislav Evseev now suspended, Mikhail Israilov keeps his spot on the bench. There is another change, with the bullet finally bit, and Vladimir Iljin dropping onto the bench and Artem Ivanov moving into the starting lineup.

The weather has improved, with temperatures pushing right up to 10c at kick off. Our defending however, has shown little signs of getting better. A long ball over the top saw Roman Tskhovrebov chase through, but Valery Golovchanov had a good starting position and got there first. His clearance wasn't great however, and Alexey Umyarov took control on halfway, waited for his striker to get back onside, and then played it in to his feet. His strength allowed him to roll by Artem Zherebin, and from twenty yards out, he blasted his shot low into the corner, the effort beating Golovchanov's dive. Eleven minutes on the clock, and this is becoming an all too familar occurrance for my liking.

I've mentioned before that my players have plenty of fight, but they showed a surprising, and annoying, lack of it here in this very nice all seater stadium that was ridiculously desserted. Kirill Uryupin went on a run just after the half hour mark, but his cross looked too deep to be of any use. Alexandr Patokin made the best he could of it, but the keeper pushed aside his shot from the most ridiculous of angles. Patokin was involved in the only other real incident of note in the first half, when he picked up a booking. For the second match in a row, the riot act was read, this time at half time, so I only had around ten minutes to get my point across, rather than the 75 minutes I used up a fortnight ago. Ten minutes was enough to make sure they understood how unhappy I was with that first half display.

There was no doubting that little chat had an impact, and the desire levels increased dramatically in the early stages of the second half, enough for both Pavel Kryukov and Konstantin Kamenskiy to earn themselves bookings early after the restart. With ten minutes or so played of the second half, Kamenskiy took a risk, already on a yellow card, he made a lunging tackle to prevent Anton Krivda entering the penalty box after he collected a short throw in. The tackle was judged to perfection, and set a counter attack underway. Patokin was played in on the right channel, and he crossed it to the far post, where Uryupin met it with a half volley that levelled the match.

There was a sense of relief on our bench, and a sense of urgency on the park, an urgency that today was going to be the day. In the 65th minute, I pulled the trigger, prompted by Uryupin taking a knock, and moved us into our attacking 4-2-1-3, taking off Uryupin and Patokin, pushing Ivanov up front to join Alexey Suzov and the newly introduced Vitaliy Yermakov, and also having Vladimir Iljin come on to play as the link between midfield and attack. The impact was virtually instant. A series of quick, sharp passing, cut a route right through our hosts defence, and Iljin played the killer ball in front of Suzov, the striker picking his spot low in the bottom corner with a quarter of the match remaining. Two minutes later, a cross into our box was headed straight back out by Dmitry Yagodinskiy. He found Iljin, who ran the ball clear before finding Ivanov. He needed one touch to control, and another to slide it right between their centre backs. Suzov had held his run just long enough to stay onside, and he raced through, rounding sub keeper Kerim Antonov, and tucking the ball home.

The match was won, and with ten minutes left, Timur Gogolidze came off after another good outing, and Sasha Palatnikov came on in his place. It was into injury time when Kryukov sent a pass down the touchline and Ivanov chased down what looked to have been a lost cause. He reached it, and sent it across the face of goal, where Palatnikov was waiting at the far post, notching the easiest finish he's ever likely to have from just two or three yards out. The job was done, now we just had to wait and see what had happened in the big match of the day in our League.

Biokhimik-Mordovia Saransk (1) 1 Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (0) 4
Scorers :- Kirill Uryupin (57), Alexey Suzov (67,69), Sasha Palatnikov (90+1)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze (Sasha Palatnikov 79); Alexandr Patokin (Vitaliy Yermakov 65), Artem Ivanov, Kirill Uryupin (inj - Vladimir Iljin 65); Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 166. Man of the Match :- Alexey Suzov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

It had been a good day, or at least, a damned good second half. It was unfortunate that I had to blow another fuse to get that performance out of the players, but it was worth the wait. Elsewhere, Balakovo built a three goal lead at home to Energia Chaykovskiy. The visitors fought back with two second half goals, but couldn't manage a third. That meant that we were now confirmed as promoted, which was of course, was very well received by all at the club. The fans were reported to be in jubilant mood, while the Board declared their delight at this unexpected success. Both were hoping I'd stay at the club for many years.

Kirill Uryupin has a dead leg, and will be out for around a week, while there was a visitor in the stands for this match as well. You'd have thought that Yury Gorbunov would have picked a home match to do his scouting, being as he is the manager from across the other side of Central at FC Magnitogorsk. His side have settled into mid-table ignominity this season, and he sees Artur Yamgurzin and Alexey Suzov as good options to improve his squad ahead of next season. I told the press that most certainly will not be happening, but we all know that if they wanted to move, there isn't really much I'd be able to do to stop them.

[neilhoskins77]

April 2016.

Clearly the Board are keen to celebrate promotion, as by Sunday morning they had declared the following weekend's home match against Velmash Velikie Luki, a fan day, the second consecutive month that we would have such a day at Central. Still, if it helps get a party atmosphere going, and keeps the accountant happy, I'm all for it. There wasn't exactly a party atmosphere with the players by Monday however. I took a team meeting, and let the players know that they had done a fantastic job to secure promotion, and now there was no reason why they couldn't push on to secure the Title. Around three quarters of the squad didn't take very kindly to that, and suggested the club should be happy with promotion, and felt that too much was now being expected of them. I didn't see that coming to be fair. The Kubok Rossii competiton has reached it's latter stages, and after the First Leg of the Semi-Finals, the Final looked set to be an all Moscow affair. That was spoilt by FC Krasnodar, who overturned a one goal deficit, winning the Second Leg 2-0 at home to get the better of CSKA. They'll meet Lokomotiv in the Final, after they beat FC Ufa despite losing the second tie.

With expectations for a higher than normal attendance for a home League match thanks to the fan day plans, we were also comfortably expected to beat our 10th placed visitors on Saturday. And if we could do that, we could well be crownded Champions, but we would need Balakovo to drop points for that to happen this weekend. A draw would also be enough if our nearest rivals couldn't get any kind of a result in their match away to APK Azov. We certainly wouldn't be taking Velmash lightly though, as they are one of just three clubs to inflict defeat upon us this season when we lost 1-0 away to them at the end of October. That was also one of only two games in the League that we have failed to find the net, the other coming on the opening day of the campaign.

Saturday 9th April 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Magnitogorsk.
Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk v Velmash Velikie Luki.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Artem Ivanov, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Zilpukarov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Evgeny Korota, Sasha Paltnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin, Vitaliy Yermakov.

There is just one change made from last time out, with Mikhail Israilov exiting the matchday squad without having made his debut this time, Vladislav Evseev is back to take his place on the bench after his suspension was served. The temperatur in our corner of this vast country has swung a huge amount in the last couple of weeks, and this match would see temperatures of around 18c, though the forecast predicts some rain showers will pass through the region today as well.

The opening spells of the match were pretty tight, and our back four had to be alert on occassions as Velmash constantly looked to cut us open with through balls. When it wasn't Dmitry Yagonsinskiy or Artem Zherebin making interceptions, it was Pavel Kryukov making crucial tackles, one in particular saw him take quite a risk, leaving his feet to execute a sliding tackle on the edge of his own penalty area, thankfully getting his timing just right. Just after the midway point of the half, we did a little bit of passing of our own, though ours was more of the patient and slow build up. It was effective nonetheless, and after some twenty five passes, Konstantin Kamenskiy lifted the ball into the right channel for Alexandr Patokin to chase. The winger did just that, and then sent a cross through the goalmouth, with Kirill Uryupin stepping in front of his marker to volley into the gaping net from a matter of yards out and hand us the advantage.

With number one on the board, the lads quickly set about trying to add a second, and Timur Gogolidze came close just ninety seconds after Uryupin's strike, the midfielder wandering unmarked into the near post area after Kryukov had found Patokin with a short throw. The winger found Gogolidze, and he maybe should have done better with the shot that only found the side netting. No matter, number two was on the way, and it arrived in the 28th minute. Alexey Suzov brought down Valery Golovchanov's long clearance, and knocked it down to Gogolidze. He swung the ball left for Uryupin, and the wide player made for the dead ball line, but cut inside when the two defender in attendance prepared themselves to try and block a cross. That bought him enough room to cut it back into the path of the quickly arriving Suzov, and with his favoured left foot, he slammed home from ten yards out. We weren't quite done yet for the first half either, as Gogolidze's attempt to play in Uryupin was blocked, he improvised and sent the ball the other way for Artem Ivanov when it bounced back to him. Ivanov backheeled it right into the path of Suzov, who turned his marker and fired low and true, finding the bottom corner and moving to 48 goals for the season.

At half time, my Assistant reccommended telling the players not to take anything for granted and become careless. Conscious that some players were unhappy with some of my team talks, and the way the meeting had gone earlier in the week, I elected to tell them they were doing a good job instead. That looked like a mistake a minute after the restart. Velmash, with their three changes all used at the break, started the half by dispossessing Gogolidze when he wanted too much time twenty yards from their goal. Zelimkhan Sorokin sent the ball to Islam Miroshnichenko, who then lifted the ball over our backline. Aware he didn't have the pace to go himself, sub Elikhan Teberdiev held it up, and slipped it to Sorokin as he made his way into the box, the striker sliding the ball under the dive of Golovchanov to reduce the arrears.

Things were now starting to go wrong, and our passes were going astray, causing us to constantly give up possession and cause problems of our own making as Velmash started to grow in confidence. Sorokin had a chance to get a second fairly quickly, this time Golovchanov got his angles right, and the shot hit him right in the chest before being cleared from danger. But our visitors confidence grew to an unattainable level, and when Anton Vinnikov tried to trick his way past Kryukov, they had committed too many players upfield. The Captain sent it down the line to Patokin, and the ball was moved quickly to Ivanov. The forward made his way towards the penalty area, before passing to Suzov. With no route to goal for a chance at the hatrick, the striker showed an unselfish streak, playing in Kamenskiy instead, and the midfielder shot into the far corner, his first goal of the season unbelievably.

Velmash tried to rally, and a long ball over the top set Teberdiev through on goal. But he never really managed to settle the ball down quite how he wanted it on the bobbly surface, and shanked his shot high and wide off target. That appeared to take the fight out of our yellow shirt clad opponents, and ten minutes later I made my own treble change, switching us to our attacking 4-2-1-3 setup for no other reason than to give the players some more time in the formation when they didn't have to go all or nothing. Kamenskiy came off for Alan Kotsyubinskiy, while Uryupin and Patokin also came off, with Vladimir Iljin going into the link up role, and Vitaliy Yermakov joining Suzov and Ivanov up front. It produced little by way of attack, and did almost see us ship a goal on the counter, Teberdiev playing supplier this time, cutting our centre defence in two with a curling through ball for Sorokin, but Golovchanov stood tall and made the stop, with Zherebin preventing Sorokin from doing anything when he picked up the loose ball. We had got what we wanted from this match in front of another bumper fan day crowd.

Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (3) 4 Velmash Velikie Luki (0) 1
Scorers :- Kirill Uryupin (25), Alexey Suzov (28,37), Konstantin Kamenskiy (58)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy (Alan Kotsyubinskiy 70), Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin (Vitaliy Yermakov 70), Artem Ivanov, Kirill Uryupin (Vladimir Iljin 70); Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 1,229. Man of the Match :- Alexey Suzov (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

Aside from a fifteen minutes spell early in the second half, we were worth our victory today, and the players put in an impressive performance. It wasn't enough to secure the Title today though, as Balakovo put in an even more impressive performance to win 5-1 away to APK Azov and keep the race for the Title alive at least mathematically. However, our next game was away to our Title rivals, and with a fifteen point lead, and only five matches remaining, a point next weekend would mean we would have the first piece of silverware of this era for the club, and only the second in it's history after they won the now defunct Third Division West Siberia & Ural Title in 1989, when still playing at a professional level.

The attendance for this match was slightly down on the fan day crowd from March, but despite that, the Board say the day was a great success, and the exciting match means they are very confident that there will be an increase in attendances in the long run. I hope they're right, boosting attendance numbers is likely to be crucial if this club has any plans on moving through the tiers and becoming a financial stable semi pro or professional outfit. Two goals and an assist earn 23 year old Alexey Suzov another man of the match award. He now has 48 goals in 49 appearances in all competitions this season, and once more FC Magnitogorsk boss Yury Gorbunov is at the game to watch the match, with his side not in action until the following day at Central. I wonder if he'll make the trip to our away game next weekend. It would be nice for him to see a Magnitogorsk side win a trophy maybe? 

[neilhoskins77]

April 2016.

Despite the season starting to draw to a close, our Scouting team haven't been any less busy. No sir. They have spent some time checking out the Youth Intakes that other clubs took on board, and have compiled a list of the youngsters they feel are the best prospects. There are most definitely some young players on that list that I would be interested in bringing into the club, but we will bide our time and wait to see how they develop in their first formative steps in the game. Some of the potential stars of the future for our club have another chance to impress when the Reserve side travel to face Spartak-Traktor Cheboxary. 19 year old striker Daniil Oladapo seizes on a defensive mistake to score the equaliser in a 1-1 draw, as he looks to benefit from the influx of younger players into the club, and get his own star back on the rise. The draw takes the Reserves off the foot of the table.

22 year old centre back Dmitry Yagodinskiy gets his assessment from the clubs backroom team, who believe that he is making good strides forward, but are a little concerned that they may not be in the areas that he should be addressing. Despite that, they believe that he will still be a more than capable player for us next season, and don't anticipate him struggling at a higher level of football. The build up begins to the big day, and our trip to face FC Balakovo with the Title there for the taking. In the press conference, I state that I believe my players are just starting to get their form back, and that if they can play to their potential, we'll get the job done this weekend.

Saturday 16th April 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Trud, Balakovo.
FC Balakovo v Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Artem Ivanov, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Zilpukarov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Evgeny Korota, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin, Vitaliy Yermakov.

The big day had arrived, I even had my best shirt and tie on. They would be getting wet though, it was a rainy day in Balakovo. There were no changes for us in either our starting eleven or matchday squad. The players know that a point is enough to make us Champions right at here. But they've been told to forget that, playing for a draw is not a smart tactic. We'll do as we normally do from a formation or tactics stand point.

Actually, it wasn't quite as normal. We started off like a team who needed this win like their future depended on it. With just over three minutes on the clock, Dmitry Yagodinskiy cut out an attempted through ball, and then launched it upfield. From a difficult height, Alexey Suzov managed to bring it down, and then send it right to Alexandr Patokin. The wingers speed of thought to see the opportunity in front of him, and speed of feet to get him into the box so quickly, meant that when he got there, there were five team mates in the box to aim for, and just two defenders to marshall them. The mistake that Patokin made was aiming for the man at the far post. Not that I don't rate Kirill Uryupin of course, but there was a chance to isolate the defenders with a shorter pass. Uryupin brought the ball down, but shot when he should have sent it back into the centre. His effort hit the side netting. We would pay for that as well. Uryupin was booked, and then we conceded a corner. Philipp Korolev sent it across towards the penalty spot, Mikhail Degtyarev headed it back across towards the near post, and Eduard Starkov powered a second header into the top corner.

I'm proud to say that there was no hint of my players letting their heads drop at all, and by the time the clock had hit twenty minutes, we were back on level terms. Pavel Kryukov sent a throw to centre midfield, and Timur Gogolidze picked up the ball, and sent it to the feet of Suzov. The big striker does what he does best, well almost. He turned his defender, and cracked off a shot with his left foot. It cannoned back off the underside of the crossbar, but fortunately Uryupin was following in, and he had an easy finish for his 20th goal of the season. He nearly got another moments later, Patokin picked him out again with a cross, this time Uryupin went for a volley, Fedor Kireev held it well. Balakovo had an even better chance to retake the lead in the 32nd minute, Anatoly Sobolev crossed from the right wing, Idar Goryaev got in between our centre backs and got a foot to the ball as well, but he didn't get enough on it, and sent it wide of the far post. They would get another chance just moments later, Adam Yesin sent a through ball into the box and Mekhti Mokh ran onto it, and lifted the ball over Valery Golovchanov, but it went the wrong side of the post, at least from his point of view. This time it was their turn to pay, Konstantin Kamenskiy's corner was headed back to him, but at the second attempt, he found Artur Yamgurzin. The left back's low shot was partly blocked, but the ball deflected right to the feet of Artem Zherebin, and the centre back stuffed the ball high into the net from close range. We had come from behind, and were on the brink when half time arrived.

Balakovo made one change to their midfield at the break, while we left all as it was. Zherebin picked up a booking just one minute after the restart, while Balakovo continued to create chances against us, Stanislav Yemeljanov, only just introduced at half time, played a ball into the left channel, where Mokh tried to beat Golovchanov at his near post with a quick shot, but the keeper managed to fight the shot off. He had much better luck with his next effort in the 57th minute, as we were undone by another corner, Lev Anikin sent in an outswinging corner, and Mokh connected with a volley that flew across goal and into the far corner to level the match again.

Keen to get the Title wrapped up right here and right now, I made a treble change in the 63rd minute, moving us to our more attacking formation. Kamenskiy, Patokin and Uryupin came off, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladimir Iljin and Vitaliy Yermakov all come on in their places. That move forced Balakovo back into their own half a bit, and brought the pace of the match down. It also had an impact on the amount of goalmouth action, with nothing of any significance happening until three minutes from time. That was the point where Vladimir Iljin sent across a corner kick, and Artem Zherebin connected with a header that flew into the far corner. There were scenes of absolute joy both from the players on the park, and the subs and staff in the dugout. I had to motion for my players to try and keep calm, while struggling to do so myself. We still had a few minutes to get through. But we managed it with surprisingly little resistance from our hosts. I punched the air in delight at the final whistle. The first trophy is now delivered. We're now the Champions!

FC Balakovo (1) 2 Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (2) 3
Scorers :- Kirill Uryupin (20), Artem Zherebin (37,87)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy (Alan Kotsyubinskiy 63), Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin (Vladimir Iljin 63), Artem Ivanov, Kirill Uryupin (Vitaliy Yermakov 63); Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 2,783. Man of the Match :- Artem Zherebin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

The Board members and Chairman had of course travelled for this huge match, and they were quickly in the dressing room to celebrate the success with the players and staff. It didn't take long for the drinks to appear, it was certainly going to be a lively trip home. We wouldn't yet have the trophy with us, that would be presented to us on May 7th, our final home match of the season, when Salyut Belgorod would be our visitors. The Board release a statement, saying they are both surprised and delighted with the clubs achievements on the park this season, and hope this season will be the first in a long line of successful campaigns with me at the helm. The supporters club add that their club has one of the best managers around, and that they hope I'll be in charge for many years to come. Their comments are all very flattering, and I hope for the same things, but there will be much greater challenges ahead of us of course.

Yury Gorbunov did indeed travel out to watch this game and once again scout Alexey Suzov. If I'd known he was coming, I'd have offered him a lift on the team coach, maybe. Artem Zherebin was the unlikely hero of the day, the 25 year old centre back only had one goal so far this season before popping up twice today, including the late Title winning goal. It would have been nice to win it in front of our fans, but there is something hugely satisfying about getting over the line at the home of the cub that turned out to be our nearest rivals, and they are still in the box seat to claim the second automatic promotion spot. Energia Chaykovskiy and Volgodonsk both lost today, allowing Krasnoznamensk and Spartak Kurgan both to keep themselves in the hunt with wins.

[neilhoskins77]

April 2016.

At the press conference after the match, I was asked what I thought was the biggest factor in our Title win, I replied that it would be my teams ability to pass and retain possession of the football, regardless of the poor surfaces we often had to play on, our own very much included in that. It was a style of football that was being replicated right through the sides representing our club now, and I hoped it would become the hallmark of Metallurg Magnitogorsk over the course of time. Our Under-18's demonstrated that they were buying into the culture, winning 2-0 at Central against ORTO Izhevsk. Centre midfielder Sergey Gorbunov was the star of the show, setting up two second half goals, one apiece for Vadim Stepanov, and Denis Antonnikov, who struck an injury time effort that put the icing on the cake. The win moves them up to 8th place in their League.

Despite the job being done in the League, there was no real movement in ticket sales either way. There was no drop in attendance for a game that had nothing left riding on it, while there was no increase in sales for fans keen to watch us play either. 18th placed Fabus Bronnitsy would be the visitors, and we were expected to roll them over without too many problems.

Saturday 23rd April 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Magnitogorsk.
Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk v Fabus Bronnitsy.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Artem Ivanov, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Zilpukarov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Evgeny Korota, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin, Vitaliy Yermakov.

With no injuries or suspensions, there is no need to make any changes. The players who got us into this position are allowed to go out an enjoy themselves for the final few matches of the season. The players certainly looked intent on doing that, and had a stab at getting us off the mark very quickly, with the ball played right out to Kirill Uryupin. He ran at a defender, before sending it back into the centre for Timur Goglidze. The midfielder picked out Alexandr Patokin, but he fired high and wide with just sixteen seconds on the clock. We didn't maintain that quick start, and our next chance didn't arrive until the 25th minute. Artem Zherebin sent the ball into the feet of Artem Ivanov, who clipped it on into the box. The entire Fabus defence were caught watching Alexey Suzov, allowing Uryupin to nip in behind them, round Ramil Shtykov, and send his low shot into the net to hand us the lead.

The Fabus defence protested long and hard, but ultimately, unsuccessfully for an offside call, and let their frustration show over the next ten minutes or so, with some pretty poor tackling, which eventually led to a card for Marat Isakov. Their defence was having a really hard time dealing with Suzov, who was imperious up front, holding the ball up despite the attention of two, sometimes three defenders. All this managed to achieve was more space for our other forwards, and Uryupin in particular looked to profit. He jinked into the penalty box, moving inside two defenders, before finally unleashing a shot that thundered off the underside of the cross bar, before being hooked clear.

Three changes were made by Fabus at the interval, and the visitors did get themselves a bit more possession as a result, but it was mostly in quite deep areas, and they were not yet posing any real threat to us. In fact, we were still the more likely looking to get a goal, and five minutes after the restart, Dmitry Yagodinskiy easily intercepted a diagonal pass, and sent it quickly to Uryupin. The winger had run at his marker all afternoon, so this time he simply lifted it over him, and let Suzov done the running. The striker's combination of pace and strength got him into the box, but his shot was well pushed away by Shtykov.

Just after the hour mark, Pavel Kryukov sent the ball down the right touchline, and Patokin got away from his marker with a nifty piece of footwork. As he approached the corner of the box, he dropped his shoulder to move by another, and found himself in the clear, but his low shot was too close to the keeper, who saved with his feet. We were midway through the half when I decided we were comfortable enough to push ourselves, and I switched us to the 4-2-1-3. Patokin was sacrificed to allow Vitaliy Yermakov on, with Uryupin deployed as the link between midfield and attack. Within a minute, the gamble had reaped it's reward. Kryukov's throw found Yermakov, and the striker cut the ball back to Konstantin Kamenskiy near the corner of the box. He squared it to his midfield partner Gogolidze, who sidefooted neatly into the corner of the net to double our advantage, and put the game beyond reasonable doubt.

That reasonable doubt would become much more doubtful less than five minutes later. Sub Aidar Klimeev did really well to bring the ball down with our defence converging on him. He then managed to find a pass to Vyacheslav Timachev, his fellow sub picking out the run of Anton Peshkin, and the midfielder slotted home to bring Fabus right back into the game. At that point, I clearly should have brought some common sense to proceedings, and pushed the players back into the formation that earned us our dominance in the earlier part of the game. But I didn't. In fact, I did nothing until the 80th minute. And when I did make a change, it wasn't a logical one, it was a show of strength and bravado by removing Uryupin to allow the more natural attacking midfielder Vladimir Iljin to play that role, and subbed off the hard working Gogolidze to allow Sasha Palatnikov some match time. I would pay for my arrogance just moments later, third sub Alexandr Kostryukhin had all the room he could ever wish for in centre midfield, and he curled a through ball between our centre backs and sent Aidar Klimeev into the gap. The player who had changed the game from the bench, ran into around 20 yards out, and then smashed a early shot that caught Valery Golovchanov out, and found the top right corner. We'd been punished, and I would have to make my medicine and learn a lesson from that.

Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (1) 2 Fabus Bronnitsy (0) 2
Scorers :- Kirill Uryupin (25), Timur Goglidze (68)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze (Sasha Palatnikov 80); Alexandr Patokin (Vitaliy Yermakov 67), Artem Ivanov, Kirill Uryupin (Vladimir Iljin 80); Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 990. Man of the Match :- Aidar Klimeev (Fabus Bronnitsy).

Over confidence maybe? Tactical naivety possibly? Or just downright arrogance? Call it what you will, the buck stops with me on that one. We had two thirds of the ball, and five times as many chances as our visitors. But I didn't make sure I had the right players on the park at the right time. I didn't suspect for a moment that Fabus would have enough to cause us any problems in the later stages. More fool me. I can only take consolation from the fact that it happened when there was nothing at stake.

Kirill Uryupin has been superb this season, getting over the twenty mark now for both goals and assists. And now, after most of a season playing in that advanced left wing role, the backroom staff he is finally able to make an impact on matches playing there. Maybe there's more to come from the 27 year old. Elsewhere, Balakovo have still not managed to confirm their promotion place. They were held to a 2-2 draw away to Slavyansk. They were a little fortunate that both Energia Chaykovskiy and Spartak Kurgan both suffered single goal defeats. But Volgodonsk did win, and have now hauled themselves back into the argument with a 3-1 victory away to Titan Moscow. That set of results left Krasnoznamensk with an opportunity to make some ground when they played on Sunday. They didn't take that opportunity though, held to a 2-2 draw at home by Kuban Barannikovskiy.

[neilhoskins77]

April 2016.

My first attempt to strenghten our young player depth ahead of next season hit a brick wall. 14 year old centre back Danila Yermakov was probably the stand out Youth player of 4.PRSLFK, and I hoped to steal him from Sodovik Sterlitamak. Unfortunately, the classy youngster, who looked like he would be equally comfortable in defensive or centre midfield, was attracting attention from higher up the Leagues, and has decided his future lies with Pivzavod Barnaul, who are about to drop into tier eight after suffering relegation from 1.PRSLFK Group 2. He did have options to move higher up the ladder, including some options to go to Moscow, but possibly will be exposed to more First Team football at his selected destination.

Yermakov would play at Central however, as he was part of the Sodovik Under-18's side that arrived on the final Tuesday of the month to face our youngsters. Kirill Antipov really has our young players grinding out some good results at the moment, and they got another today, with two first half goals from Alexandr Kovalev pushing them onto a 2-1 win, a result that sends them past another group of clubs to move right up to 4th place in the League. They're now only two points from the top, with three matches left to play. The Reserves would play at Central the following night, hosting Dinamo Mashinostroitel. A goal from Daniil Oladapo had us looking good early on, but Dinamo were level by the 20th minute, and there was no further scoring in this match. 18 year old centre back Islam Zarochentsev was singled out for praise after his man of the match performance, the defender making several crucial interceptions, and also doing a good job of passing the ball too. The result drops the Reserves back to the foot of the table though, as Dinamo Perm got a win to leapfrog our second string side. FC 999 Izhevsk have now been confirmed as the winners of this Reserve Group.

Its going to be a big weekend in 4.PRSLFK Group 10. We might have done our job, but we will still be involved in the serious action this weekend, as we visit Central. Not our Central, the other one. The home of Spartak Kurgan, who might be outsiders to find a route to promotion, but they are still in the race right now. Balakovo need a point today to claim the second automatic promotion berth. The big match of the day has to be Volgodonsk's home match with Energia Chaykovskiy. If Energia can claim a win in that one, then Volgodonsk are out of the running for the season. Krasnoznamensk are currently level on points with Energia, and they travel to face bottom of the table Astratex, who have improved over recent weeks, and are still battling away to move off the bottom of the table.

Saturday 30th April 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Kurgan.
Spartak Kurgan v Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Artem Ivanov, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Ziplukarov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Evgeny Korota, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, Vladimir Iljin, Vitaliy Yermakov.

Unchanged once again for this match, and I'd like to tell you that we lived up to our League Champions status by cracking out the champagne football. However, that wasn't really the case. In the last game we tried to attack right from kick off you may remember, and we did the same again here, except the ball sailed well over the head of Alexandr Patokin. That kind of set the tone, as everything was just a little off, Artem Ivanov trying a through ball that was aimed for Alexey Suzov, the striker was unable to get there though as he was clearly being impeded by a defender. The ref waved play on as the ball rolled favourably for Kirill Uryupin, but the left wingers first time effort was well blocked by Marat Drozdov in the Spartak goal. Midway through the half, the keeper came to his sides rescue once again, some nice passing dragged the Spartak defence out of position, and Timur Gogolidze then switched play to pick out an unmarked Uryupin, but Drozdov turned his driven shot around the post. We would lose Artem Ivanov just before the half hour, he suffered a deep gash on his leg after a tackle, and was replaced by Vladimir Iljin. That led into a quiet end to the first half, where a Yury Yevseev effort blocked by Artem Zherebin offered the only real goalmouth action.

Spartak made all three changes at the break, while we stuck with the slightly ammended lineup we already had following our one forced substitution. Despite those changes, Spartak did not look like a side who needed a win to remain in with any kind of realistic chance of reaching the Promotion Playoff. In fact, they looked like a side very happy to play for a draw here. For us, it made no difference at all of course, but I still had ambition to win the match, and made my two remaining changes with twenty minutes to go, and exhausted Artem Zherebin was replaced by Vladislav Philippov, while a not quite as spent by weary all the same Patokin was brought off to allow a cameo appearance for Vladislav Evseev. The latter came closest to making an impact, curling a cross into the box that Suzov chested down into the path of Vladimir Iljin, but the veteran got his shot all wrong and cleared the cross bar by some distance. Despite our dominance of possession, this match never really looked likely to produce a goal, and scoreless would be how it would finish.

Spartak Kurgan (0) 0 Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (0) 0
Scorers :- None.
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin (Vladislav Philippov 69), Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin (Vladislav Evseev 69), Artem Ivanov (inj - Vladimir Iljin 29), Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 1,487. Man of the Match :- Konstantin Kamenskiy (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

As near as makes no difference to two thirds of the possession, and fourteen efforts, of which six were on target. Meanwhile, Spartak only struck at goal four times, and none of them forced Valery Golovchanov into a save. The only thing he was likely to catch was the flu from standing in the rain with nothing to do. Artem Ivanov will miss the remainder of the season, his gashed leg making him unavailable for around three weeks. He has made enough appearances to earn a medal when the prizes are given out next weekend at our final home match of the campaign.

Speaking of prizes, Balakovo have finally managed to get across the finishing line, and secure the second promotion spot on offer, and they will also be playing tier nine football come next season. A crowd of nearly 2,000 saw them clinch promotion with a 2-1 home win over Sodovik, courtesy of a pair of first half goals from Amir Borzykin. That leaves the others fighting for the right to play in a Relegation/Promotion Playoff with a 19th or 20th placed finisher from one of the eight Groups that form 3.PRSLFK. Despite losing 2-1 away to Volgodonsk, the box seat is currently held by Energia Chaykovskiy. They are ahead of Krasnoznamensk by virtue of their superior goal difference, the fourth placed club will be furious at themselves with wasting an opportunity to take the advantage, losing 2-1 away to Astratex. The win for Volgodonsk leaves them just a point behind now, while Spartak Kurgan are three points out of the Playoff place, but with a vastly inferior goal difference, have to considered the long shots of the four still in the race.

[neilhoskins77]

2015/16 Russian 4.PRSLFK Group 14 League Table. Up to & Including Saturday 30th April 2016.

| Pos | Inf   | Team                      | Pld   | Won   | Drn   | Lst   | For   | Ag    | GD    | Pts   |  

| 1st | C     | Metallurg Magnitogorsk    | 44    | 28    | 13    | 3     | 103   | 50    | 53    | 97    |  
| 2nd | P     | Balakovo                  | 44    | 24    | 9     | 11    | 65    | 54    | 11    | 81    | 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
| 3rd |       | Energia Chaykovskiy       | 44    | 18    | 15    | 11    | 64    | 45    | 19    | 69    | 
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
| 4th |       | Krasnoznamensk            | 44    | 19    | 12    | 13    | 64    | 52    | 12    | 69    |  
| 5th |       | Volgodonsk                | 44    | 18    | 14    | 12    | 56    | 48    | 8     | 68    |  
| 6th |       | Spartak Kurgan            | 44    | 18    | 12    | 14    | 58    | 54    | 4     | 66    |  
| 7th |       | Salyut                    | 44    | 16    | 13    | 15    | 55    | 56    | -1    | 61    |  
| 8th |       | Kuban Barannikovskiy      | 44    | 16    | 13    | 15    | 63    | 61    | 2     | 61    |  
| 9th |       | Titan Moscow              | 44    | 16    | 13    | 15    | 71    | 55    | 16    | 61    |  
| 10th|       | Spartak Shuya             | 44    | 16    | 12    | 16    | 66    | 61    | 5     | 60    |  
| 11th|       | Sodovik                   | 44    | 14    | 18    | 12    | 56    | 56    | 0     | 60    |  
| 12th|       | Slavyansk                 | 44    | 17    | 9     | 18    | 55    | 58    | -3    | 60    |  
| 13th|       | Reformatsia               | 44    | 16    | 11    | 17    | 52    | 58    | -6    | 59    |  
| 14th|       | Biokhimik-Mordovia        | 44    | 14    | 15    | 15    | 53    | 59    | -6    | 57    |  
| 15th|       | Velmash Luki              | 44    | 14    | 13    | 17    | 48    | 51    | -3    | 55    |  
| 16th|       | Irtysh Tobolsk            | 44    | 13    | 16    | 15    | 47    | 49    | -2    | 55    |  
| 17th|       | Kuban Slavyansk-na-Kubani | 44    | 15    | 10    | 19    | 57    | 68    | -11   | 55    |  
| 18th|       | Fabus                     | 44    | 14    | 12    | 18    | 51    | 69    | -18   | 54    |  
| 19th|       | Energetik Uren            | 44    | 14    | 12    | 18    | 48    | 55    | -7    | 54    |  
| 20th|       | APK Azov                  | 44    | 13    | 12    | 19    | 55    | 66    | -11   | 51    |  
| 21st|       | Oasis                     | 44    | 10    | 20    | 14    | 61    | 63    | -2    | 50    |  
| 22nd|       | Dinamo Izhevsk            | 44    | 11    | 9     | 24    | 49    | 71    | -22   | 42    |  
| 23rd|       | Spartak Anapa             | 44    | 8     | 18    | 18    | 37    | 55    | -18   | 42    |  
| 24th|       | Astratex                  | 44    | 8     | 15    | 21    | 48    | 68    | -20   | 39    |  

 

[EvilDave]

I haven't commented on this in far too long, so well done on promotion! One down, eight to go I guess, but you've got to start somewhere. I'm intrigued to see how much of a step up there is in the first few divisions given just how low down you're playing, but I reckon if you can keep hold of Suzov, Uryupin, Gogolidze and Yamgurzin you'll be fine - reading through, they seem to be the names that come up time and time again. Great work as ever, keep it up Neil!

[neilhoskins77]

14 hours ago, EvilDave said:

I haven't commented on this in far too long, so well done on promotion! One down, eight to go I guess, but you've got to start somewhere. I'm intrigued to see how much of a step up there is in the first few divisions given just how low down you're playing, but I reckon if you can keep hold of Suzov, Uryupin, Gogolidze and Yamgurzin you'll be fine - reading through, they seem to be the names that come up time and time again. Great work as ever, keep it up Neil!

Good to see you back Dave, and thanks for the kind words. I think you have definitely picked out the pick of the bunch there, Suzov is closing in on a 50 goal season, Uryupin was signed as a left back but has embraced the move to left winger and weighed in with 20+ in both goals and assists. Gogolidze is getting better and better, and Yamgurzin just needs to find a way to cut the bookings down. That said, you don't have a season like that one without getting some attention, and the vultures are circling our star players. Of our regular starting XI at the moment, only two do not have at least three clubs keeping an eye on them, and it might be tough to keep the squad together if we remain at an amateur level.

Who knows how far up the pyramid we can rise. I suspect it will get more difficult season on season, and not just because the standard should improve through the League's. Every February/March, each club gets a new batch of youngsters, and eventually each club will have a manager in place. When that happens, the competition for players will increase, the tactical naivety of the AI will reduce, and we will see an increase in our oppositions levels of play. We'll need to seek new ways to win, but I look forward to all of that. Thanks for reading, I hope you're enjoying the journey.

[neilhoskins77]

May 2016.

Despite the small matter of Euro 2016 being held in the country, the annual French Youth Invitational tournament still goes ahead, and will begin on May 30th. Russia has been invited, and will compete in Group A, where they will be pitted against France, Egypt, Oman and Canada. The other Group will be contested by Argentina, Mexico, Sweden, Austria and Uzbekistan. 40 year old Zenit St Petersburg Coach, and former Russian International capped 65 times, Sergey Semak, will be in charge of the side for the tournament, and will announce his squad later in the month. Meanwhile, just one level lower in the Under-19's, Russia are pitched into Group Four of the Second Qualifying Round for the European Under-19 Championships. The winners of the seven Groups will join hosts Germany for the summer's Finals, which will kick off a matter of days after the Senior's Finals come to a conclusion. The football season's pretty much just roll on continuously now. The nations Under-19's are drawn into a Qualifying Group with Croatia, Romania and Serbia. How's that for Group that harks back to the old Eastern European days.

At a considerably lower level of age group football on Wednesday evening, our Under-18's visit Spartak Kurgan at KZKT, the training ground for the club. After going behind early on, Kirill Vlasov provided a quick equaliser, and Vadim Stepanov did the same midway through the half. But Spartak's youngsters scored twice more before the half was out, and that 4-2 lead held up throughout the remainder of the match. The defeat dropped our age group side down to 6th place, but they are not necessarily out of contention just yet, and they will play again on the weekend.

With a Senior and Under-18 match both scheduled for the weekend, I have to think about whether I want to call anyone up from the age group side to replace the injured Artem Ivanov. I elect to leave the young squad as it is, and David Arabachyan will be called back up into the matchday squad to take the spare slot on the day when the club will be presented with the League Champions trophy after the match with Salyut Belgorod. The bookies think it's likely that the foot will come off the gas now that the job is done, as they have us at a very backable price of 5/4 for this match. Alexey Suzov is no longer concerned with the tone of the team talks, stating this has improved over the last few weeks, and he is now happy with the talks in general.

Maxim Guz', my assistant manager at the club, tells me the day before the match that he is concerned how long it takes for the squad to pick up changes to tactics, formations and systems. He suggests the most effective way around this is to improve the training facilities, though theres no chance of the Board agreeing to that. He recommends that we consider starting to think about next season now, and that if I plan on implementing any changes to the way we play, I should start thinking about bringing those into training. I don't plan on making any drastic changes in the way we play, but I am considering a change to the shape, possibly including a return to the old fashioned 'Libero' role in defence. I'm not going to worry about that too much right now though, it's time for the party to start.

Saturday 7th May 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Central, Magnitogorsk.
Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk v Salyut Belgorod.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Zilpukarov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Evgeny Korota, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, David Arabachyan, Vitaliy Yermakov.

With Artem Ivanov injured, there is a return to the starting lineup for Vladimir Iljin, and in turn, that opens a space on the bench for David Arabachyan to return to the matchday squad. There is no increase in the attendance figures to see us lift the trophy after a successful campaign. Even the sun declined to make an appearance, and while the temperature has crept up, wind and rain make it a pretty grey and miserable looking Saturday afternoon in Magnitogorsk. The state of the playing surface doesn't help matters either.

While this match is essentially a dead rubber, there are still a few milestones in sight to make the final couple of matches of the season interesting. One is the chance to hit one hundred League points to go with the one hundred goals we've already achieved. A win today would see that milestone be achieved. The other is a personal quest for Alexey Suzov to hit 50 goals for the season. Both of those targets move closer to being hit with two and a half minutes on the clock. A superb team move, that involved every single player apart from Artur Yamgurzin, saw us play the ball out from the back, and drag the visiting defence back and forth the park as we probed for a route through their defence. That came when Timur Gogolidze switched the play to the left, and Kirill Uryupin sent in a cross towards the penalty spot, and Suzov found the net for the 49th time with a first time volley that flew by Oleg Djabrailov. Unfortunately, the first half brought very little in the way of action from either side, with the exception of the now almost compulsory yellow card for Yamgurzin midway through the half.

Salyut made three changes at the break, including changing keepers. I asked my players to step up their efforts and put the game to bed so we could relax and enjoy the celebrations that would follow. The ref wasn't in the mood to take part in any celebrations, except maybe making it National Yellow Card Day. He booked Alexandr Tkachenko of Salyut early in the second half. In the 69th minute I replaced both of my midfielders, with Gogolidze and Konstantin Kamenskiy both leaving the park to be replaced by Sasha Palatnikov and Alan Kotsyubinskiy. Both of them found themselves in the book within six minutes of coming on.

They had an altogether different kind of impact in the 76th minute. Yamgurzin's short throw in found Uryupin, and he sent it back to the corner of the box to Palatnikov. The midfielder sent a pass square across the edge of the box, and picked out Kotsyubinskiy. The other substitute drove a low shot through the crowded penalty box, and sub keeper Aslanbek Sharipov may well have been unsighted, as the ball way behind him before he could even move, and we had the safety of the second goal to get us through the match. There was still time for a short cameo appearance in the shadow striker role for Vitaliy Yermakov, and another two yellow cards to be handed out.

As late afternoon arrived, the sun peeked out from behind the clouds to cast shadows across the park. The match ended, and a makeshift stage was setup in the centre circle. A group of people representing the League shook hands with squad members and staff, handed out the medals, and then beat a very hasty retreat as Pavel Kryukov lifted the trophy into the air, and the champagne was uncorked. A very damp looking group of players then made their way to the area where our supporters generally watched the game from to continue the celebrations. With thousands of empty seats in the stadium, a lap of honour would've been pretty pointless.

Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (1) 2 Salyut Belgorod (0) 0
Scorers :- Alexey Suzov (3), Alan Kotsyubinskiy (76)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Artur Yamgurzin; Konstantin Kamenskiy (Sasha Palatnikov 69), Timur Gogolidze (Alan Kotsyubinskiy (69); Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin (Vitaliy Yermakov 79), Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 1,016. Man of the Match :- Timur Gogolidze (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

Salyut had not showed up in any way today, and they barely had 30% of the ball, managed a single shot on target to add to the one they had that didn't force Valery Golovchanov to work, and not one of their players managed a performance rating higher than a 6.7. In stark contrast, we only had two players that didn't get a rating of at least a 7.0. We had achieved the one hundred League points mark, and now the only milestone left was that 50 goal season marker for Alexey Suzov. At any half decent level of football, that mark is a huge target. It's often something you only see either in schoolboy football or from the real superstars of the global game. For a player like Suzov, this is likely to be a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I'd love to see him get a goal in our next and final match of the season.

Wins for both Energia Chaykovskiy and Volgodonsk meant that the race for the third spot and the Promotion Playoff match would go down to the final day of the season. Krasnoznamensk would not play until Sunday, where they would only manage a draw at home. That meant that Energia required just a win on the last day to take the spot. Volgodonsk would go into that final day in 4th place, and one point behind them, with Kraznoznamensk's draw meaning they were now 5th, and another point behind again. Saturday had seen our Under-18's play their penultimate match of the season as well, and they travelled to, and defeated, Dinamo-Novovyatich. With a great mix between the new lads, and the older Youth players, Kirill Vlasov fired us ahead three minutes into the second half with his second goal in the space of a few days, but Dinamo levelled before the hour mark. With 69 minutes on the clock, German Burlyaev missed the chance to put us back ahead from the penalty spot, but saw his effort rattle off the post. He would make amends just a minute later, slotting home from close range. Their season will finish in ten days or so, with no fewer than eight clubs, half of the League, still in with a mathematical shout of winning the Title.

[neilhoskins77]

May 2016.

The booking given to Artur Yamgurzin in the first half of our final home match of the season was his fifteenth of the campaign. Not only will he miss the final match of the season, he will also be unavailable for the opening two matches of next season as well now after being given a three match ban.

Russia's Under-19 side travelled to Sinj in Croatia, where Group Four of the European Under-19 Championship Qualifiers would be started. It would prove to be a baptism of fire for the young Russians against the hosts, they were outplayed by the host nation and lost 4-0, putting them very much on the backfoot for their remaining games. After that, it's perhaps not surprising that Sergey Semak declined picking any of the Under-19 players when he announced his 20 man squad to take to France for the Youth Invitational when it gets underway at the end of the month.

Luciano Spalletti, who has already won trophies with Empoli, Roma and Zenit St Petersburg, has now won a Cup less than six months after being hired by Lokomotiv Moscow just before Christmas. After a 1-1 draw in the First Leg of the Kubok Rossii Final with FC Krasnodar, the side from the capital took their opponents back to their home ground, and beat them 3-0 in the Second Leg to retain the Cup that they also won last Spring as well. It's the seventh time they have lifted that particular trophy. On the same night, there is some other football played. Our Reserves complete their season fixture list with a trip to Energetik Uren. They came back with a 3-1 win, the foundations laid by a quick start that saw the team two up inside quarter of an hour after an own goal and a Vladimir Kuznetsov strike. Oleg Tikhonov made it three on the hour before Energetik pulled one back. David Arabachyan is named man of the match, and the win means the Reserves avoid finishing bottom of Group 60, after Dinamo Perm could only draw. Meanwhile in Moscow, the Under-19's play what is now a vital second Qualifying match at Luzhniki against Romania. Two first half goals had them in the driving seat, but they had to survive a second half assault by the Romanians. They managed to do so, conceding just once midway through the half. Despite having less than 40% of the ball, they scored on the only two shots they hit the target with, and can still make it to the Finals.

In the final pre-match press conference of the season, I told the media that I wasn't concerning myself with the ever growing queue of clubs looking to take our best players like Timur Gogolidze from under our noses. I told them that they were all enjoying their football in Magnitogorsk, and there was no reason for them to move elsewhere right now. That press call came the day before our final match of the campaign, a trip to Kuban Slavyansk-na-Kubani. I'm glad the League was wrapped up and we had been presented with the trophy already. This club struggles to get more than fifty in for a home match, and it would have been like a ghost town if we'd been presented with it at their place.

Saturday 14th May 2016 - Russian 4.PRSLFK, Group 14.
Kuban Slavyansk Stadium, Kubani.
Kuban Slavyansk-na-Kubani v Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk.
(4-2-3-1) :- Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Evgeny Korota; Konstantin Kamenskiy, Timur Gogolidze; Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Substitutes :- Abdulla Zulpukarov, Nikita Semenov, Vladislav Philippov, Oleg Tikhonov, Sasha Palatnikov, Alan Kotsyubinskiy, Vladislav Evseev, David Arabachyan, Vitaliy Yermakov.

It may well be the final day of the season, but the weather didn't suggest it, as blustery winds drove rain down the park. I had to make a change with Artur Yamgurzin suspended, and Evgeny Korota would step off the bench to take his spot at left back. That opened a place on the bench, which would go to 14 year old Oleg Tikhonov, who had impressed since arriving in the Youth Intake, and would now get a chance to make his Senior football debut should circumstances allow. We had two goals today, to try and finish the campaign with a win, and to try and get Alexey Suzov on the scoresheet to allow the striker a 50 goal season.

There wasn't to be an early opportunity for our striker, or anybody else for that matter, as the game started with the look of two sides going through the motions. He did get a kick around the ankles from Ildar Kalashnikov when he tried to hold the ball up near the edge of the box, which earned the Kuban player a booking. Suzov missed the target with the free kick, but we did eventually get off the mark with a set piece in the 28th minute. Konstantin Kamenskiy lifted a corner kick in to the near post area, where he found Artem Zherebin doing a pretty good impression of a striker. The ball looked like it was going by him, but the centre back showed a great first touch to pull it down, and then as it rose back up, he sent it goalwards, the ball beating the keeper and going in off the underside of the cross bar for his fourth of the season.

Salakh Lukjanov couldn't do a great deal about that one, but he really should've done a lot better less than ten minutes later. Pavel Kryukov found some space on the right touchline, and sent a curling ball over their defence that allowed Alexandr Patokin to sprint in behind them and get to the byline. From there, he cut it right back to the edge of the box. Timur Gogolidze arrived and connected with a header that flew towards the goal. Lukjanov possibly had his view blocked by a group of players in front of him. But there was no reason why he should be off his line, and Gogolidze's header looped over his attempt to stop it, which came far to late, and the ball rustled the far corner of the net. You don't see too many goals from headers that far out, and the keeper would likely have to shoulder the blame for that one.

Two goals down at the break, and the home side made all three changes, not surprisingly, that included Lukjanov leaving the park to be replaced by Roman Moskvin. It was pretty clear that every player on the park in a white Magnitogorsk jersey wanted Suzov to get that landmark goal. Early in the second half, we were camped inside the Kuban half, and made several attempts to find the striker, but he was being pretty well marshalled by the opposition defence. Gogolidze did manage to squeeze a through ball into the path of Vladimir Iljin however, but the veteran saw his shot bounce back off the base of the upright.

Three bookings in a ten minute spell brought a slightly different tone to the game around the hour mark, fortunately only one of those bookings was for us, as Iljin was cautioned for a shirt pull. With just under fifteen minutes to go, I made three changes, with the midfield pairing withdrawn again for Alan Kotsyubinskiy and a rare and possible final outing for us for David Arabachyan. At the other end of the scale was a Senior football debut for 14 year old Oleg Tikhonov, who came on at left back for Evgeny Korota. Keen as I was for Suzov to get his goal, I left him on, but wasn't quite prepared to risk our comfortable winning position by going all out and throw players forward. Nikita Salnikov dragged his shot well wide when Leonid Petrenko played him in, and in the final seconds, Iljin sent a corner kick into a crowded penalty area. It was easily headed clear, and the season was over.

Kuban Slavyansk-na-Kubani (0) 0 Metallurg-Metiznik Magnitogorsk (2) 2
Scorers :- Artem Zherebin (28), Timur Gogolidze (36)
Valery Golovchanov; Pavel Kryukov (capt), Dmitry Yagodinskiy, Artem Zherebin, Evgeny Korota (Oleg Tikhonov 76); Konstantin Kamenskiy (Alan Kotsyubinskiy 76), Timur Gogolidze (David Arabachyan 76); Alexandr Patokin, Vladimir Iljin, Kirill Uryupin; Alexey Suzov.
Attendance :- 66. Man of the Match :- Alexandr Patokin (Metallurg Magnitogorsk).

It's Energia Chaykovskiy who claim third place in the League, defeating Spartak Anapa 2-0 away from home. They will now extend their season into a one leg match a neutral venue next weekend. A draw takes place, and they will face Krylja Sovetov-SOK Dimitrovgrad who finished 20th in 3.PRSLFK Group 4, claiming just 8 wins over their 46 match season. I quite fancy Energia's chances of winning that one. Volgodonsk finished what had become a disappointing season with a defeat. They had looked like potential runaway winners at one point, but a poor run of form cost them, and on the last day they lost at home to Slavyansk. Had Energia dropped the ball, Krasnoznamensk held up their end with a 1-0 win away to already promoted Balakovo. That wouldn't have been enough, their goal difference would've still only had them good enough for fourth.

Oleg Tikhonov has taken his first steps on his journey of Senior football in that match. Meanwhile, as the dust starts to settle on our season, some other players are making decisions on their futures, some not unexpected, some are a surprise. Both Vladimir Iljin and Vladimir Matveev announced that they will retire when the season finishes. With a combined age of nearly 100 between them, it's not a shock, but it's possible that Iljin will remain with the club, he is sitting on a contract offer to continue in his role as Assistant Manager to our Under-18 side. It was slightly more shocking when both Abdulla Zilpukarov and David Arabachyan also both announced their intention to hang up their boots. They are both 32, and both took their season of mostly sitting on the bench as a sign that it was time to finish up. I asked Zilpukarov to reconsider, as I still believe he is a player we can use in the future.

Russia Under-19's required a victory when they hosted Serbia at the Petrovsky in St Petersburg in their final Group Four match for European Under-19 Championship Qualifiers. They went ahead, but then found themselves behind, before pulling themselves level in a match that would end 2-2. For two sides who already had a win apiece, it wasn't enough, as Croatia won against Romania, and it was they who would progress through to the Finals in the summer. And if the media was to be believed, then I would be joining International ranks as well in the very near future.......

[neilhoskins77]

With much regret, I'll have to call a halt to this save at this point. I can't get through the summer without the game suffering crash dumps at frequent points. I'm yet to establish if this is once more down to the expansion leagues that are being used, or if it is the sheer amount of leagues running that is causing the issue. Thanks for reading, and once the issue is sorted, I may well return to Magnitogorsk to pick up on the attempt to move Metallurg through the Divisions.