Friday, 31 March 2023

BELARUSIAN FOOTBALL - WEEKEND PREVIEW

It's Week Two of the Premier League and Week One of the First League in Belarus this weekend. 

The National Team's fortunes, who are currently banned from playing in their home country, didn't fare well on the International break.  

It all started well against Switzerland (playing behind closed doors in Serbia) when Vladimir Khavaschinski hit the bar from close range in the first minute but then went rapidly downhill as The Swiss ran in five goals without reply. The defeat wasn't an unexpected one against the FIFA ranked 12th team - Belarus are currently 97th!  

In Tuesday's game against Romania played in front of 27,800 people in Bucharest new Dynamo Minsk signing Valdislav Morozov scored a late goal to end the game in a 2-1 defeat. The former Rukh Brest and Isloch striker, 22, came off the bench in the 78th minute to score in the 86th. 

The results see's Georgy Kondeatyev's side bottom of Group I of the UEFA 2024 Qualfying Group where they next face Israel and Kosovo in June. These are "home game" where the venue has yet to be arranged.   

The u21 side drew 0-0 with Andorra u21s followed by a 1-1 draw with Greece U21 in the 2025 UEFA European u21 Championship qualification Group G where they also face forthcoming games against Portugal, Croatia and Faroe Islands. FC Minsk defender Maksim Kasarab scored the goal against Greece.

The u17 side went very close to qualification for the UEFA Euro u17 championship which will be held in Hungary later this year. 

They had a very impressive result with a 2-1 win over Serbia u17 with goals from Sixteen year old Ruslan Myalkovskiy (of Arsenal Dzerzhinsk) who made 10 Premier League apperances last season and Pavel Apetenok of Dynamo Minsk.

They then played Israel and were 0-2 up but the game ended 2-2. Two more Dynamo Minsk players scored the goals in Trofim Melnichenko and Nikita Lyukevich. 

A 2-1 defeat to Bosnia-Herzegovina saw them finish third in the Group A of the Elite Round qualification table which was eventually topped by Serbia. 

New Gomel striker Junior Effage who recently signed from Moldovan club Dinamo-Auto Tiraspol came off the bench on the 60th minute for Gabon u23s in their first game against Cameroon u23s which was a 1-0 victory. They played Cameroon once more and the game went to penalty kicks which Gabon won to secure a place in the final of the African Nations u23 Cup.

Will Effage make his first start for Gomel this weekend in their game at Naftan Novopolotsk? The eighteen year old scored 3 goals in 14 games in the Moldovan Super Liga during his time with Dinamo-Auto Tiraspol. 

Naftan Novopolotsk were rather unlucky to lose at Shakhtyor in their first game so it'll be interesting to see how they get on at home to Gomel who lost to BATE Borisov on the opening weekend of the season. Naftan will be in a confident mood having won 11-0 in a friendly game against Second League side Polotsk over last weekend.

Torpedo Belaz will be favourites to beat Smorgon at home - both sides had 1-0 wins in the opening weekend with Torpedo winning at Dynamo Brest and Smorgon at home to Belshina. 

Isloch and Dynamo Brest who both lost their opening games face off in the last game on Saturday. 

In Sunday's game Neman start their campaign with a home game against current champion's Shakhtyor. They have been in great form over the pre-season and have also qualified from the Belarusian Cup SF. They are still managed by Igor Kovalevich who has been in charge since 2016. 

The former Belarus u21 coach hasn't been busy in the transfer market since the end of the 2022 season only signing three players. However the trio are all very experienced in the Premier League. They have signed midfielder Mikhail Kozlov from Dynamo Minsk, striker Roman Paparyga from Energetik-BGU and defender Yuri Pantea from Gomel. 

Young striker Maksim Kravtsov, 20, has returned to Neman and could feature. He scored 8 goals in 23 First League games for Smorgon last season. Neman fans may be hoping the their Gambian striker Pa Jobe who only made one start last season could score some goals this season. He netted 19 goals in 23 games in the 2021 Bangladeshi Premier League season for Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club. 

Perhaps the game of the weekend in the Premier League is the last game on Sunday when BATE Borisov (3rd last season) host Energetik-BGU (2nd last season). The Students don't appear to have a stronger squad this season so may not do as well as they so incredibly did in 2022. BATE with the firepower of Denis Laptev will be favourites to win this one but never back against the amazing Energetik side? 

The First League starts this weekend with three new clubs moving up from the Second League in Bumprom Gomel, Niva Dolbizno and Zhodino Yuzhnoe. DNEPR Mogilev, Vitebsk and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk were all relegated from the Prermier League. 

Maxline Rogachev who beat Arsenal Dzerzhinsk in the relegation/promotion play-off were unable to gain a licence to play in the Premier League - the club who were originally founded as Avtomobilist Rogachev in 1983 were dissolved in 2006 but reformed in 2006. They have moved from their home town in the Gomel region over the summer and are now known as Maxline Vitebsk.  It's 170 miles between the Roegachev and Vitebsk! 

MATCH ACTION FROM NAFTAN NOVOPOLOTSK v POLOTSK FRIENDLY GAME 

Bumprom Gomel ran away with the Gomel region title in the Second League last season scoring 165 goals and winning 17 of 18 games in the regular season. 

Niva Dolbizno won the Brest Region West Division winning all ten games in the regular season with Zhodino Yuzhnoe winning the Minsk Region North Division. 

I'm going to go with two games of the weekend in the First League with Maxline visiting Slonim and Arsenal Dzerzhinsk hosting Shakhtyor Petrikov who finished in 3rd place last season. 

MOLODECHNO v KRUMKACHY MINSK FRIENDLY GAME 
(CREDIT - fcmolodechno on INSTA

I think the best signing made by a First League side could have been made by Molodechno. Yuri Kozlov, 31, scored 13 goals in 23 games for First League champion's Naftan Novopolotsk last season. He has played in the top tier for Neman Grodno, FC Minsk, Slutsk, Dynapro and Luch Minsk. Kozlov has never been a prolific scorer in the Premier League but in the First League he has played 70 games (63 starts and 7 sub appearances) and scored 34 goals.  

Below is a corner's league for the first week of the Premier League which shows Slutsk and FK Gomel being the best teams winning 8 each.   

CORNER'S LEAGUE 
TEAM WON CONCEDED TOTAL
SLUTSK  8  11 
FK GOMEL  2 10
FC MINSK  7 12 
DYNAMO MINSK 
SHAKHTYOR SOLIGORSK
BELSHINA BOBRUISK  6
SLAVIA MOZYR  5 12 
ISLOCH  
TORPEDO ZHODINO  3
ENERGETIK-BGU  3 11 
NAFTAN NOVOPOLOTSK 
BATE BORISOV  2 8 
DYNAMO BREST  2
SMORGON

SATURDAY 1st APRIL
PREMIER LEAGUE 
Naftan Novopolotsk v FK Gomel 
Torpedo BelAZ Zhodino v Smorgon 
Isloch v Dynamo Brest 

FIRST LEAGUE 
Slonim v Maxline Vitebsk 
Zhodino Yuzhnoe v Volna Pinsk
Lida v Osipovichy
Niva Dolbizno v Bumprom

SUNDAY 2nd APRIL
PREMIER LEAGUE 
Slutsk v FC Minsk 
Neman Grodno v Shakhtyor Soligorsk 
Slavia Mozyr v Dynamo Minsk 
BATE Borisov v Energetik-BGU 

FIRST LEAGUE
Ostrovets v Baranovichi 
Lokomotiv Gomel v Molodechno 
Arsenal Dzerzhinsk v  Shakhtyor Petrikov 
DNEPR Mogilev v Orsha

NOT IN ACTION
PREMIER LEAGUE - Belshina Bobruisk
FIRST LEAGUE - Vitebsk 



Monday, 27 March 2023

BRILLIANT GAME - FC BARESI AND FC PETROCUB DRAW 2-2


This was an excellent and highly entertaining game between two good footballing sides who could on this showing easily move upwards from their current step seven level of the football pyramid. 

FC Petrocub have shown that they can certainly mix it further up the levels this season as they have got all the way through to the London FA Senior Trophy final where they face Southern Counties East Division side Tooting Bec tomorrow evening at Bayliss Avenue, Thamesmead. 

FC Petrocub London were formed in 2018 and represent the Moldovan community who now make London their home. The club are named after FC Petrocub Hîncești who who the Moldovan Cup in 2020 and have been playing in the UEFA Europa and Conference Leagues over the past few seasons. They are currently based at the Noak Hill Sports Centre in Romford. 

They brought with them a good number of noisy and friendly supporters for this game against FC Baresi who I have featured twice this season as they currently ground share at Ware FC.
(Link v Jolof Sports here and v Welwyn GC Development here)

Both clubs are doing very well this season in third and fifth place of the table. 

FC Petrocub have some silverware to aim for - they have the aforementioned London Senior Trophy where ironically they knocked out FC Baresi on penalty kicks after a 1-1 draw in the First Round. They will face table toppers and title favourite's Brimsdown in the league's Fenton Cup QF and Frenford Development in the Senior Division Cup SF. 

FC Baresi were knocked out of the Fenton Cup by Brimsdown on penalty kicks after a 0-0 draw and the Senior Division Cup in the First Round by Rapid Chingford who won 2-3. There under 23 side who played in the Essex Alliance Division Two are through to the Fenton Trophy SF. 

Highlights and photographs from the game which was a real pleasure to watch are below.  The free kick scored by FC Baresi for their second goal was superb and well worth a watch! 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - SHORT 


MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - LONG



















HILLINGDON BOROUGH IN GREAT FORM WITH BIG VICTORY AT SPARTANS YOUTH

Hillingdon Borough were relegated from Step Four at the end of the 2008/09 season and then slipped to Step Six when they finished bottom of the Spartan South Midlands Premier Division in the 2014/15 campaign. The historic club even announced they were pulling out of the league in January 2017 but following an intervention and help from former player Yannick Bolasie, who was playing for Everton at the time, the club happily continued to play. 

For the 21/22 season they transferred over to the Combined Counties League Division One and struggled finishing in nineteenth place of twenty-one teams. 

This season the club have a talented young side managed by UEFA A coach Carlan Edgar who have hit some good form of late. They had an indifferent start losing 2-7, 1-6 and 2-6 but following this win over Spartans Youth have now won four and lost two of their last six games netting seventeen goals in the process. 

Their starting XI for this game included Darrell Edgar-Phillips who is only sixteen years old along with 18 year old's Orlando Fertleman and Makael Scott. As the score line of 0-4 suggests they were much the better side and it could of been more with the chances they created especially in the second half. 

What I thought was very impressive was that both sides were very well coached from the dug outs with clear and consistent advice to all their players - I think some clubs further up the pyramid could easily learn something from watching these two teams in action. 

Spartans Youth are in their first season at Step Six on the non-league ladder following promotion from the Surrey Premier County League and are currently ground-sharing at Northwood FC. They two have some very good young players and are currently in a very respectable seventeenth place in the table. The club's spiritual home is in the Brentford and Isleworth area where they were first founded in 2006. 

Hillingdon Borough have two home games at The Middlesex Stadium coming up tomorrow when they play Westside and next Tuesday evening when Penn & Tylers Green visit. 

Spartans Youth have a very busy week with three home games against Langley (tomorrow), Rayners Lane (Saturday) and AFC Aldermaston next Tuesday evening. 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - LONG 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - SHORT 

Sunday, 26 March 2023

NEW LOOK HATFIELD TOWN THROUGH TO THE AUBERY CUP SEMI-FINALS

MATCH PLAYED ON SATURDAY 18th MARCH 
HERTS SENIOR COUNTY LEAGUE AUBERY CUP QUARTER FINAL 
HATFIELD TOWN 4 CUFFLEY 2 

A new look Hatfield Town took one step closer to the Aubery Cup Final last weekend with a 4-2 win over Cuffley at The Herts FA County Ground in Letchworth where they are currently ground sharing. 

The club has been under the new ownership of former Stotfold and New River manager Marce Collington since mid January and are now longer The Stagz having been rebranded as The Bullz.

Joining Hatfield in the semi-finals are Belstone, Welwyn Garden City Development and Ware Sports. 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - SHORT 


MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - LONG 

























ARLESEY TOWN 1 AYLESBURY VALE DYNAMOS 2


SPARTAN SOUTH MIDLANDS LEAGUE PREMIER DIVISION 
MATCH PLAYED ON TUESDAY 14th MARCH 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - SHORT 


MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - LONG 


OWN GOAL SCORED BY AYLESBURY VALE DYNAMOS 


The current bottom five in the table and the battle to beat the drop is shown below. For London Colney to stay up would take a remarkable turn around in form and with Baldock Town now having an eleven point gap between themselves and local rival's Arlesey Town it looks like one of three teams will finish in nineteenth position and be playing step six football for the 23/24 season.  


It's a HUGE week for Hoddesdon Town who entertain Colney Heath on Tuesday and then London Colney on Saturday - the bottom of the table could have a very different by 5pm on Saturday!  

Since this game was played Arlesey Town have had two very creditable away draws with a 2-2 at St Panteleimon and a 1-1 at Ardley United - they did lost 5-0 at Division One side Rugby Borough in the Gladwish Challenge Trophy between these games. It doesn't get any easier for them as they host table toppers and league title favourite's Leighton Town on Tuesday evening. 

CURRENT TABLE
POSTEAMPWDLGF-GAGDPTS FORMPP
16. BALDOCK TOWN 311041749-67-1834LLLWWD55
17. ARLESEY TOWN 31581830-51-3123WLLLDD44
18. COLNEY HEATH 31652025-55-3023LWDLLL44
19.HODDESDON TOWN31581830-70-4023LDLLDL44
20.LONDON COLNEY29232419-81-629LWLLLL36

FORTHCOMING FIXTURES FOR BOTTOM FIVE
TUESDAY 28th MARCH 
ARLESEY TOWN v LEIGHTON TOWN 
HODDESDON TOWN v COLNEY HEATH 
LONDON COLNEY v LEVERSTOCK GREEN 

THURSDAY 30th MARCH 
LONDON COLNEY v CRAWLEY GREEN 

SATURDAY 1st APRIL
BALDOCK TOWN v LEIGHTON TOWN 
COLNEY HEATH v HARPENDEN TOWN 
HODDESDON TOWN v LONDON COLNEY 
SHEFFORD TOWN & CAMPTON v ARLESEY TOWN 

Tuesday, 21 March 2023

GUTZMORE DOUBLE HELPS TOTTERNHOE TO VICTORY OVER HIS FORMER CLUB

It was a bitterly cold evening in Hertfordshire on Tuesday 7th March - as kick off approached the temperature hovered around -1 to zero with a frost settling on the playing surface at The John Clements Sports and Community Centre. It was most certainly a night for a hat, gloves and layers of clothing for the 52 spectators in attendance which included a good number who had made the twenty mile trip from Totternhoe. 

This was 7th v 5th in the table with the visitors going into the game on the back of a 3-1 home win against Buckingham United on Saturday - Codicote had won 0-4 at AFC Caddington which had ended a run of three defeats in a row. 

The game was a highly entertaining one with some tackles flying in and some impressive attacking play of which Totternhoe had the better of in the first 45 minutes with the half time score being 1-2. 

Cod goalkeeper Judicael Mottaz, who has made three appearances for Premier Division side Potton United this season, won't want to remember Tott's first goal as he allowed former Cod striker Kadeem Gutzmore to nick the ball from a back pass to score an easy tap in. It was an unfortunate mistake that many goalkeepers make in their career with Mottaz making up for it with a good save with his feet only a few minutes later to keep the score at 0-1. 

With the score a 2-2 with only around ten minutes to go the home side had a brilliant chance to make it 3-2 with a shot from the edge of the box going very close past the post. 

It was the visitors who scored the winner with a composed finish from Gutzmore past Mottaz to take the three points in a really competitive game. 

Totts still have an outside chance of the title with games in hand over teams above them although as you can see from the table it's clearly Old Bradwell United, currently in second place, who are favourites to finish top. They currently have a +72 goal difference and only only one league defeat all season which was at Aston Clinton in October. 

Tott's best chance of silverware is in the Division Two Cup where they are though to the semi-final stage where they play Eynesbury United away next Tuesday evening. Leighton Town Development await the winners of the Old Bradwell United v Berkhamsted Raiders semi-final. 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - LONG 

MATCH HIGHLIGHTS - SHORT 

Codicote, Eynesbury United (8th) and Leighton Town Development (3rd) are the only clubs to apply for promotion from the Spartan South Midlands League Division Two for this season - who may well be promoted at the end of the season remains to be seen? 

SPARTAN SOUTH MIDLANDS LEAGUE DIVISION TWO 
CURRENT TABLE - TOP FIVE ONLY 
POS TEAM P GD PTS  FORM  PP 
1. NEW BRADWELL ST PETER  22 +38 55 WWWWWW 85
2.  OLD BRADWELL UTD 17 +72 48 WWWWWW 93
3.  LEIGHTON TOWN DEV 21 +34 48 WWWDWW 81
4.  MK COLLEGE  24 +21 43 WWWLWL 67
5.  TOTTERNHOE  17 +27 41 DLLWWW 86


Sunday, 19 March 2023

MARTYNOV AND FRANTUZOV TWO OF THE STARS ON THE OPENING WEEKEND OF THE BELARUSIAN PREMIER LEAGUE

CELEBRATION TIME FOR THE YOUNG FC MINSK SQUAD
(courtesy of @minsk1954)

The theme for the opening weekend of the Belarusian Premier League was youth. The first goal of the season was scored by 17 year old FC Minsk attacker Timofey Martynov - his side won 2-0 against Slavia Mozyr with the average age of the ten players who started in outfield positions being just 19.1 years of age. 

BATE Borisov won 0-2 at Gomel with 18 year old midfielder Alexander Frantuzov scoring their second goal. 

It was nearly a fantastic result for First League Champions Naftan Novopolotsk who went down 2-1 at Shakhtyor Soligorsk with an 88th minute equaliser disallowed for a debatable foul on Shakhtyor's goalkeeper. The home side's second goal was scored by 20 year old Maksim Kovalevich which was his first goal in the Premier League. He has spent the last two seasons with Shakhtyor Petrikov - He scored 22 goals in 24 games for Shakhtyor Soligorsk II in the 2020 reserve league. 

Naftan only had Artem Drabatovich and Ignati Sidor left from the the starting XI in their final game of the 2022 First League season. 

The big winners of the weekend were Dynamo Minsk who won 3-0 against Isloch with Brazilian Orinho on the score sheet alongside Vladimir Khvashchinskiy and Vladislav Morozov. Khvashchinskiy scored 22 goals in 27 games for FC Minsk last season and could be a key player for Dynamo - Morozov scored against his former club. 

Last season's runner's up Energetik-BGU won 1-0 at home to Slutsk via Ilya Grischenko goal - they spent much of the game with ten men following Yamoussa Camara's red card (second yellow) on 40 minutes. 

The only other red card of the weekend came in Dynamo Brest's 0-1 home defeat to Torpedo Zhodino where Edgar Olekhnovich was red carded just prior to the half time whistle for an off the ball clash. Former Rukh Brest and Dynamo player Evgeniy Shevchenko scored the only goal of the game watched by a crowd of 6,137 which was the top crowd of game week one. 

In the final game of the weekend it was Smorgon who picked up three points on their return to the top tier with a 1-0 home win over Belshina Bobruisk. 19 year old Matvey Dukso's free kick in the 85 minute bounced in front of Belshina's keeper Aleksay Kharitonovich who was unable to make the save. The home side had missed a penalty kick in the first half via former Krumkachy Minsk player Vitali Litkhtin. 

RESULTS 
FRIDAY 17th MARCH 
FC MINSK 2-0 SLAVIA MOZYR (543)

SATURDAY 18th MARCH 
SHAKHTYOR SOLIGORSK 2-1 NAFTAN NOVOPOLOTSK (1,150)
GOMEL 0-2 BATE BORISOV (1,200)
DYNAMO MINSK 3-0 ISLOCH (3,150
DYNAMO BREST 0-1 TORPEDO ZHODINO (6,137)  

SUNDAY 19th MARCH 
ENERGETIK-BGU MINSK 1-0 SLUTSK (477)
SMORGON 1-0 BELSHINA BOBRUISK (820)

NOT IN ACTION - NEMAN GRODNO 

FIXTURES 
FRIDAY 24th MARCH 
BELARUS u21 v ANDORRA u21 -  UEFA EURO 2025 QUALIFYING GROUP G
being played in Armenia due to the current UEFA ban on International matches being played in Belarus 

SATURDAY 25th MARCH 
BELARUS v SWITZERLAND - UEFA EURO 2024 QUALIFYING GROUP I
being played in Serbia due to current UEFA ban on International matches being played in Belarus 

TUESDAY 28th MARCH 
GREECE u21 v BELARUS u21 - UEFA EURO 2025 QUALIFYING GROUP G 
ROMANIA v BELARUS - UEFA EURO 2024 QUALIFYING GROUP I 

FRIDAY 31st MARCH 
NAFTAN NOVOPOLOTSK v GOMEL 

SATURDAY 1st APRIL 
SLUTSK v FC MINSK 
TORPEDO BELAZ ZHODINO v SMORGON 
ISLOCH v DYNAMO BREST 

SUNDAY 2nd APRIL 
BATE BORISOV v ENERGETIK-BGU 
NEMAN GRODNO v SHAKHTYOR SOLIGORSK 
SLAVIA MOZYR v DYNAMO MINSK 

NOT IN ACTION - BELSHINA BOBRUISK 

THE FIRST LEAGUE OPENING WEEKEND'S FIXTURES TAKE PLACE ON THE WEEKEND OF THE 1st and 2nd APRIL - MORE NEWS ON THESE GAMES SOON.