Vysheyshaya Liga Match Report: 13th Round, June 14th 2020, Energetik-BGU 0-1 Belshina Bobruisk

Vladimir Belyavskiy & The Case of the Missing Montenegrin

It had been a poor weekend to date in the Vysheyshaya Liga; you know it's been a bad one when Gorodeya's match had been the best to watch by a distance, before our kick-off. Saturday's games in particular had been a bleak tundra of stultifyingly boring dross; think Tony Pulis versus Sam Allardyce on a disused roundabout in Swindon.

However, Vladimir's tinkering and little surprises always promise to entertain. Lesko returned in goal to replace Sadovskiy, with Yudchits returning to take the place of Bakić. The Montenegrin forward had had his two best games of the season to date against Shakhtyor and Vitebsk, so either he was ill, hadn't trained well, or just needed a rest. Yudchits resumed his partnership with Yakshiboev up front and the team, as always, was set up in the 3-5-2 formation with Girs and Mawatu as wing-backs. Umarov kept his place in the starting line-up, ahead of Sovpel. As predicted Belshina replaced the gaffe-prone skipper Turanok with Kharitonovich in goal, and remodelled the defence completely, with experienced striker Leonid Kovel taking the armband. 

Knock on Wood(work) 

The game, with Energetik in an unfamiliar if smart all-blue third kit, began at a good tempo, if offering few clear cut chances. The pattern of the game began to emerge; we had a lot of the ball, but little end product. For their part Belshina looked to hit on the counter attack and Kovel in particular looked threatening in the early stages.

Tweh shot over from the edge of the box early on in the game, and the little Liberian attacker was involved in our first near miss around the ten minute mark. Svirepa lofted a long ball forward from the half way line and Tweh was perfectly positioned at the edge of the box to run onto it. Getting goalside of his marker, Tweh burst into the area and lifted the ball over Kharitonovich who had been a bit slow to come off his line. The ball struck the bar squarely and bounced back into play without anyone on hand to follow up. Yakshiboev tried to keep things going but was shepherded out of play.

The first real warning sign that Belshina hadn't just come as extras in this drama, came around the twenty minute mark with a rapid breakaway. Girs lost the ball in their area and it was played out quickly to Kovel, lurking on the half way line by the left touchline. With a trademark quick turn the forward brushed off Svirepa with embarrassing ease and burst into a powerful run, surging through a gap between Shkurdyuk and the retreating no. 15, holding off challenges from both. At the edge of the area Kovpel laid the ball off, and with the Energetik rearguard dishevelled and disorientated, received the ball back via Glebko. From about fifteen yards he hit a low, powerful drive which Lesko did very well to block with his shins; the ball looped in the air but another Belshina attacker sclaffed it high and wide from the re-bound. This was a let-off, and Lesko berated the back three for their carelessness for a good while afterwards.

Energetik almost responded in the best way, half way through the first half. Scrappy play saw the visitors lose the ball on the half way line, and Umarov was played in down their right. The Uzbek built up a great head of steam, hit the bye-line and crossed low in behind the Belshina defence. Yudchits, again goal-side of their no. 15, met the ball perfectly and bundled it into the net amidst a collision with Kharitonovich. Unfortunately, the goal was given offside- subsequent photos show it to be a highly marginal decision, and unlucky for Yudchits. Linesmen tend to err on the side of caution, for fear of allowing an offside goal to stand, and we fell victim to this. As it transpired this was a critical moment in the game.

Yakshiboev had cut a largely anonymous figure but reminded us all he was playing with ten minutes to go until half time. Intricate work and interplay between Tweh and Mawatu down the dressing room touchline saw Tweh play a perfect cross towards Yakshiboev. He rose and met the ball quite well, but his header fell just the wrong side of the post, doing nothing more than upset Kharitonovich's water bottle.

The last action of the half saw Energetik have a little let off of our own. A Glebko free kick taken near the edge of the area bounced awkwardly in the box and ran up Shkurdyuk's body. Accidentally, in the half second before it cleared, the ball struck his hand, and the visitors protested for a penalty. As the saying goes, "you've seen them given", particularly by some of the hyper-fussy refs in this league, but on this occasion common sense prevailed. Phew.

Ch-Ch-Changes

The first half hadn't been bad, but we had had warnings, and clearly enough was enough for Vladimir. Displaying a boldness that he is not normally associated with, he withdrew the disappointing Umarov in favour of Sovpel, whilst the giant Atemeng replaced Miroshnikov. Miroshnikov is the best of our back three so I can only assume he picked up a knock. With Atemeng moved up front to play off Yakshiboev, Yudchits dropped back into midfield, with Nosko back further into defence. Before the players had the time to tune into this game of footballing chairs, Belshina were ahead.

Nice work by Rekish, Nechaev and Glebko down the Energetik left saw the ball fed back to Nechaev just inside the Energetik box. He floated an excellent ball over the top of our defence and found Kovel, largely unmarked, at the far post. The big no. 9 nodded down and past the exposed Lesko to open the scoring, in front of Belshina's small knot of diehards. Kovel had very cleverly sneaked into the big gap between Svirepa, who seemed to lose sight of him, and Yudchits, still trying to adjust to an unfamiliar new role at wing-back.


Hope was maintained however by the fact that Belshina had squandered several leads this season. We pressed forward and just after the hour mark a slight foul on Tweh set up a very dangerous opportunity at the edge of the Belshina box, left of the centre of Kharitonovich's goal. Tweh, taking the kick himself, sent a beautiful right foot curler over the wall and...smack off the bar again. Belshina, their defence swaying like a police line trying to contain an angry mob, dug in desperately. Atemeng tried to play the ball in but the shot was blocked. The ball fell to Yakshiboev but a poor first touch allowed a desperate defender to hack it clear. Still no goal. A sinking feeling of Gorodeya began to settle in the stomach.

With twenty minutes left Energetik probed again. Neat play between Mawatu and Tweh saw the ball fall to Haïk, who had not long replaced Girs in the middle of the park. The lanky striker hit a powerful low shot that was blocked brilliantly by the on-rushing Kharitonovich, and the ball bounced out from his body. Mawatu picked it up on the left, teasing the Belshina defence with some step overs before a deft flick in the air to Haïk again, just at the edge of the box. The big Armenian dived bravely to make the header, which the sprawling Kharitonovich kept out with some help from his left hand post. Unfortunately Haïk hurt himself badly, with his cheekbone crashing off the back of a Belshina defender's head at full force, as he went for the header. Briefly knocked out, he was then cradled, barely conscious, by Yakshiboev as held his face in obvious pain, with players from both teams looking on concerned. Haïk eventually departed the City Stadium in an ambulance, after several minutes of urgent treatment, and we had to play on a man short, having used all of our substitutes already.

That nasty incident seemed to take a lot of the momentum from the game and it slowly circled the drain of niggly inconsequence for the remaining fifteen minutes. We got into one or two half-promising positions but Belshina packed the box with their full team, determined not to suffer another late collapse. This time, deservedly, they hung on, as the belief and self-confidence drained away from our players. The ball just would not fall for us in the box and when it did, it was either under someone's studs or surrounded by three Belshina players. They managed the last stages of the game very effectively and in doing so, grabbed the points.   

IST (Isloch-Slutsk-Torpedo) Syndrome

There's a lot of thinking to do for our coaches this week. We are now in real danger of developing full-blown IST (Isloch-Slutsk-Torpedo) syndrome; that is to say, being a team who flatters to deceive at the start of the season only to fall away listlessly by the end. We have now taken just one point in three matches, and more tellingly are struggling to put away the poorer sides; if we finish fifth a few points off Europe at the end of the campaign, then the last gasp draw with Vitebsk and poor home defeats to Gorodeya and today will haunt us.

Overall this was an extremely dismaying result. What today exposed is that there isn't too much flexibility in the game plan and not a huge amount of depth to the squad. With Miroshnikov injured, and poor Haïk looking likely to be out for some time, we'll need to think again. There has to be some possibility to change the formation and players around.

Today also showed how important Bakić is to our cohesion up front. Yakshiboev, who looked petulant and disinterested until Haïk went off injured, seems to play better off Bakić. Perhaps a heresy should also be considered. If Bakić was fit and merely being rested today then I'd swap him back for Yakshiboev next week. If you're a professional footballer you don't get to pick and choose which games you turn up for, and I was really disappointed with the talisman's attitude today. The stark contrast between how our no. 7 led the line, for most of the game, and how Kovel led Belshina's, was the difference between the sides.

We have said all along that we should expect anomalous results and odd performances from time to time from our very young and inexperienced group. That doesn't make it any less frustrating when it actually happens. It wasn't all bad- the luckless Tweh had his best game for a while and was my man of the match by a distance, and the tireless Mawatu also gets an honourable mention. Belshina's Kovel, overall, was the best player on the park.

At the risk of repeating myself, I do feel we need one or two more experienced heads in the July window to help us in difficult situations. Belshina seemed to have learnt from Shaktyor's handling of Nosko last week, and he was quiet again. Lesko had a couple of important saves and actually once or twice looked a bit shocked at what was happening in front of him. I was once told by a Scottish manager that the only reason a coach played three at the back was because their team didn't know how to defend. I was thinking of that today as our back three were pulled hither and thither by Kovel. Defensively we were pretty poor and better opponents would have punished us more. One more experienced player in the middle of the park or at centre-half would make such a difference in turning around adverse situations. With hindsight Nosko dropping back made it more difficult for us and that's an important lesson, too.

Belshina just wanted the win far more today, and were fully deserving of the luck they had. The fact that a winless team, already needing snookers at the bottom of the table, showed so much more of the necessary attitude is perhaps the most sobering aspect of this afternoon's defeat for us. A big week lies ahead on the training pitch before we head to face Leonid Kuchuk's improving Dinamo Minsk side in the next game.

Jon Blackwood
Twitter: @jonblackwood