Energetik came into the game in good spirits after their win in Molodechno over Dynamo Brest. Coach Vladimir stuck with more or less the same players that had done so well in that game, with Umarov keeping his starting berth in midfield and the attacking force provided by Yakshiboev, Bakić and Yudchits.
This was a game played throughout at high tempo and intensity, with both clubs realising the importance of the fixture. The winners would go second behind leaders BATE in the table, with the losers forced to re-build a few places behind. Isloch, having slumped to a tepid defeat away to a poor Dynamo Minsk side in their last game, were perhaps more in need of the points than their visitors.
The game started as it meant to go on. Umarov, dropping his shoulder and bursting down the right touchline, sent over a cross-cum-shot at pace, that rattled the bar, with goalkeeper Hatkevich struggling to gather the ball. The rebound fell to Yakshiboev, but at too tight an angle for him to make anything of. With barely seven minutes on the clock, Godfrey Stephen twisted and turned inside our area and unleashed a murderous rising drive that crashed back off the bar and down on the goal line, with big Lesko completely beaten. The ball was hacked unconvincingly to safety. Very quickly, the game had established a frenetic tempo which only subsided with tiredness in the last ten minutes or so.
Conditions of high farce saw the scoring opened just after the quarter hour. Bakić, having received the ball in the area, crashed to the ground clutching his left shin. Replays showed that there had been no contact whatsoever with the Montenegrin forward and he was lucky not to be shown a yellow card for simulation. The referee bought the charade, however, and pointed to the spot. Energetik never lose when they score the first goal so the deep tinges of embarrassment at the award were soothed a bit by that thought. Yakshiboev buried a confident penalty low to Hatekvich's left, with the goalkeeper diving rightwards. 1-0 to Energetik.
Energetik had the chance to put a foot on the throat of the game half way through the first half. A careless Isloch throw in, half way inside their own half, saw the ball fall to one of their centre-halves who slipped and fell trying to control it. In a flash Yakshiboev, scenting blood, gathered the loose ball and sprinted into the area. It's often the case that a forward presented with a clear opportunity like this thinks of too many options and then does nothing.
Unfortunately, this is what happened. Yak tried to go wide of Hatkevich who had come out quickly from his goal; the Isloch keeper intervened brilliantly as the Uzbek tried to round him, pushing the ball away. Yak stumbled a bit, lost a few more yards, and looked up to see the formerly empty goal full of white shirts and the chance gone. He buried his face in the neck of his shirt in despair, but I credit Hatkevich with a great piece of work.
Perhaps the referee realised his earlier mistake and wanted to make amends, as there's little other explanation for why Isloch were awarded their own penalty about five minutes after this Yakshiboev chance. Momo Yansane, the Guinean forward, burst at pace into our area with Yudchits at close quarters. I think Momo tried to line up a blockbuster shot, but he connected only with fresh air and, kicking high, crashed backwards to the ground. It was an absurd moment, like watching a Moulin Rouge novice fail her audition catastrophically. The referee supplied the punchline by pointing to the spot, again, having adjudged Yudchits of a foul that never was. Godfrey Stephen drilled the penalty hard and low to Lesko's left; the big keeper guessed right, but there was simply too much power on the ball for him to be able to stop it. 1-1.
The teams traded blows until half time but the level score was about right. Yakshiboev's failure to take that chance may have been playing a little on his mind, whilst Isloch, an uncharateristic mess at the back in the first half, headed in for what was no doubt a fire-and-brimstone sermon from coach Vitaly in their dressing room. The animated young gaffer had looked less than pleased at what he had seen in the first forty five minutes.
The game picked up where it had left off with Isloch perhaps having the better of the second half's opening exchanges. Awarded a free kick on fifty minutes, big centre half Papush hit an excellent low drive which was creeping in at our left hand post; Lesko made a fine, sprawling low save, parrying the ball to safety. A few minutes later Yansane, who had been largely anonymous, was played into our box on the right. He perhaps had more time than he realised, sending a hasty shot rising at Lesko's shoulder, with the startled keeper parrying. With several Isloch players choking for the ball to fall to them, we were lucky that it fell nowhere in particular, and was hacked clear.
After these scares Energetik began to shake off the lethargy of the break. Three wonderful chances were passed up; Yakshiboev found himself in space and time to the right of Hatkevich, but, surrounded by several white shirts, just couldn't get the ball out from under his feet, and a weak shot was blocked. Defender Svirepa was startled by a ball which landed with him from a corner, and spooned it over the bar when very well placed. Captain Alexey Nosko arrowed into the area and scraped a rising right foot shot across the face of goal, narrowly missing the top left corner, with Hatkevich exposed. After the latter chance was passed up, I think most Energetik fans would have settled from a point from a tough encounter.
This sense of being happy with a point heightened as our players wilted visibly in the last ten minutes or so. Nosko, the mainstay of our side, looked absolutely shattered. Several of our other lads were visibly gritting their teeth, hanging on as best they could. Isloch began to increase the pressure again; one of their forwards was booked for clumsy simulation, the referee having learned his lesson from the first half, whilst Lisovsky could have connected better when well placed, his harmless bumbler of a shot being gathered gratefully by Lesko, as Vitaly held his head in his hands in the home dugout.
And so the clock wound down and everyone began to think through their philosophical post-match postscripts, with a point in the bag. But wait, there's Yakshiboev with the ball in the middle, just the right side of the centre circle. He used his final joule of energy to shuffle the ball rightwards to Yudchits, who'd had a quiet game overall. Finding a burst of pace which few of us have seen his big frame reach before, the big no. 9 accelerated, like a double-decker trying to reach 50mph on a dual carriageway. He held off a clumsy and half-hearted challenge from Isloch's Adegbola. With the home defence retreating, and from about twenty five yards, Yudchits put the laces of his right boot through the ball and it hissed into the top left hand corner of Hatkevich's net, with the goalkeeper, caught out of position, motionless. The ball bounced back out, and the ground stood still for a second whilst everyone processed what had just happened. The big man had caught the ball absolutely perfectly.
Normally these kinds of late shots- more often than not- are the product of desperation, and test the integrity of the concrete wall behind the goal or, in the most severe cases, are last seen bouncing down platform 2 of the local railway station, never to be seen again. But this had gone in, and we'd won. The players disappeared into an ecstatic celebratory pyramid. There was barely time for the game to re-start before the referee blew for full time. Coach Vladimir allowed himself a little smile before remembering that he was on television, and quickly re-assuming his emotionless posture of granite-hewn impassivity.
This was a classic win, ground out of adversity, with the players working hard to conjure a late surprise. The team is making a real name for itself as having the spirit and the temperament to produce results when they don't look very likely. We came back from Slutsk with two engines smoking and a dead tail-gunner, but crucially, with three points. We strolled past Dynamo last weekend. And now, with this great win, the confidence of the players will be sky high; the vital ingredient of belief in the team prevailing no matter what the present circumstances may be.
This win leaves us a point behind BATE who have a much better goal difference than us. A Vitebsk side that has pulled up few trees in the league thus far are the next visitors to Molodechno. If we can win that game and then come back from the following league match away to a very impressive Shaktyor Soligorsk intact, then we will start to believe that our great start to the campaign has been more than just good luck, and may yet bring unexpected rewards.
Well done, lads.
Jon Blackwood, @JonBlackwood on Twitter
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