Football in the Bulgarian community

Home to Kukorevo

With the first half of the season nearing its end the table is becoming split into two sections; the top half battling it out for the league title and ourselves and four other sides chopping and changing positions on a weekly basis.
This week we had an opportunity to pull a little clear of the pack with a win against fellow strugglers Kukorevo. This is the visitors first season and they are proving a hard side to break down.

The game started well with Gagarin making chances and pushing forward with purpose when in possession, the deadlock was broken on the 12 minute mark when Rusi scored direct from a free-kick which the goalie should have done better with.
Shortly after we had a goal disallowed for offside to the obvious displeasure of the fans. Again we continued to press forward and seemed to be quite comfortable even though I felt we were not playing as well as we can. The half continued in similar fashion until a mistake, in the 38th minute, from the home keeper allowed the Kukorevo striker to tap in from close range.
By the way our keeper this week was one of our strikers Trancho, who had to take over from Ivan in the Elhovo match. Apparently a red card was not given to Ivan then after all, (only in Bulgaria) but because of the way he acted in that match and the fact that he does not want to be in goal during the Inzovo match as its his old team and the village he lives in, Darren decided that Trancho needed to have some experience and gave him extra coaching all last week. Trancho’s confidence is not high, and as soon as he made this error today, it only lowered it further.

Half time and the scores were level. When the teams came out for the second half we had been forced into two changes due to injury. Ivan came on for Vesko and young Avram replaced Vesi so after a small shake up the match resumed and it was soon apparent that Kukorevo were the team feeling more positive and started to control the game and it was they who took the lead heading home from a throw-in.

The referee today we have had before and is always fair but I have to say today was not one of his best, although in fairness he was not helped by his assistants who on a number occasions would raise the flag and then just as quickly put it down again and on at least two occasions my players were given offside from inside their own half.

The referee made several mistakes not allowing the game to continue when a team had advantage and clear chance at goal. He was reluctant to give out cards when he should have which may have calmed things down and prevented some of the frustration.
These kinds of decisions are what all fans get excited about and it was no big surprise that when an incident arose in front of the away fans trouble followed.
This is the side of football I despise.
What started the trouble was two players challenging for the ball, the referee has given us a free-kick, the ball has gone out of play and away fan nearest my player has attempted to headbut him, on seeing this the home fans have invaded the pitch and a fracas has erupted the one policeman in attendance has had to attempt to calm things down, it took between 5 and 10 minutes to get going again.
Once played was resumed the free-kick was curled in and landed on the foot of Kuncho who only needed to guide the ball in the right direction to level the scores, instead he didn’t get control and never managed to get a shot away.
A few minutes later and again a golden opportunity was squandered.
The referee bought the game to an end exactly on the 90 minutes when there should have been at least 5 minutes of extra time due to the crowd trouble because he was concerned it may start up again.
Effectively the behaviour of the fans has ended our chance to level the scores.
In fairness the away fans were as culpable, as far as I am aware no action was or is going to be taken, the fan that started the trouble should be facing a ban from football matches, and idiots like this spoil the game and have no place along side proper fans.

I have found in Bulgaria that the fans do get a little feisty but in the main the mood remains upbeat. It is unusual for the type of over-reaction that we had today to happen.

At the end of the day though we can only look at ourselves and that is where the blame lies, I mean no offence to Kukorevo but they did not win the game today, more like we lost it.
We have to take the chances we create. We are far better at the back but sometimes I feel we couldn’t buy a goal and that we could play all day and fail to hit the target.
It simply is not good enough and just leaves everyone, fans and players alike, feeling down.  
Man of the Match was Stancho who had a steady performance in the centre of defence and it is no coincidence that we have stopped leaking so many goals.
Magari award goes to he fans, who knows had the ref felt able to play the correct injury time we may have managed to salvage a point.
Next week have a massive game away to Inzovo who are currently at the bottom of the league. This is also the village I live in and the closest village to Krumovo so the atmosphere can get pretty heated.
Lets hope we can put today’s result behind us and get a much needed victory.

Thanks for reading.
Darren  

My Thoughts
Not a good game for Gagarin to lose to newcomers to the league and allowing their first win.
Kukerovo are looking better than we were this time last year, and seem to have a far better understanding of the game than Gagarin, which is such an important factor.

Today’s match was unusual in that the away side had a large group of fans.
Gagarin’s fans are kept 3 metres away from the side line by a long line of string and posts, but Kukorevo’s were not.

The referee didn’t seem to have a good head and was not watching his linesmen very well, he made a fair few bad decisions, and one in particular when one of the the inconsistent linemen flagged for something the ref looked and the linesman put his flag down.
This enraged our crowd and even Darren demanded to know what had the linesman seen, he must have seen something so why did he put his flag up and then down? The referee did not answer.

Unbelievably when our newcomer to the team Angel, had a decision against him and then stupidly pushed the ref, who then fumbled to get his cards out of his top pocket, the team tried desperately to calm the situation, and incredibly Angel got away with NO booking!!

In the 2nd half a Kukerovo fan who must have been in his 40s taunted older Avram (18yrs) who had gone to get the ball for a free kick, Avram stood up to the guy who then head butted Avram (this is how close they were to the line!) and all hell broke lose not surprisingly!

Our fans quickly followed the local policeman over to the other side and there was some argy bargy including the players which went on for about 5 minutes.I'm pleased to report that for once Jeanette decided not to become involved in this and we watched from a safe distance.

Darren sat this out; I could see his heart was not in this match any longer, though I noted his head went down from the 18th minute of the 2nd half along with the rest of the team, and that is unusual for him.

The chances were created for Gagarin, twice at least from incoming free kicks off Darren, which Kuncho should have had direct goals but instead hoofed away!!

At the end it was very friendly lots of shaking hands, except Darren who could not speak to anyone.  He says he doesn’t know what the answer is any longer and had actually threatened to stand down from managing to the team as he feels that he is not helping them as they still don’t seem to understand their positions, and he can only think it’s down to him not being able to explain it in their language.

Both times the team has said they DO understand Darren and they want him as manager of the team, so now it can only be that they are NOT listening.

It seemed a real downer of a match afterwards, something I have not felt whilst Darren has been managing Gagarin until today.

I soo hope that something positive will happen next week.

Thanks again to Jeanette and Keith, for the time keeping and coffee!! Sorry we didn’t bring cookies or muffins this week xx

Next week is away at Inzovo, Sunday 8th 10.30am
Nikki

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