Living with wolves

‘Here goes nothing’, ‘in for a penny, in for a pound’, ‘the barn’s gone, let the house go too’. You could come up with a dozen more reactions to Oleh Shandruk’s team selection. Against the league’s highest scorers, the Veres coach put two untested debutants, Stefaniuk and Sanotskyi, in the most important positions, goalkeeper and centre-back. At left-back was Bahrii, whose Premier League experience amounted to 22 minutes against Epitsentr in round three.

In reality there was no fatalism, caprice or recklessness in Shandruk’s selection. There were several reasons for going so young, chiefly the absence of key players. Kharatin and Vovchenko were suspended, Gonçalves was injured and first-choice goalkeeper Horokh was going through a bad spell. After four straight defeats, there is also a temptation to gamble and see what happens.

The gamble did not come off, although at half-time it was still tempting to wonder. Zhytomyr’s Wolves had clearly underestimated their relatives from Rivne, or rather overestimated themselves. The numbers bear that out. The hosts managed one shot all half and it was off target, so there was hardly a chance worth the name. It was Polissia’s goal that came under fire. In the 39th minute Wesley sent Sharai through, only for Krushynskyi to throw himself in front of the shot at the last instant. Three minutes later Volynets saved from Wesley from ten metres at his near post.

Ruslan Rotan acted decisively at half-time and changed three positions at once. The changes paid off almost at once. Rivne’s hopes were undone 92 seconds after the restart by a move simple enough to make you yawn: Kravchenko crossed from the right and Sarapii headed in from the edge of the six-yard box.

The battle-hardened Zhytomyr Wolves immediately went hunting the inexperienced Pavlo Stefaniuk. The 21-year-old goalkeeper held out for the whole half, as did his teammates, down to ten from the 59th minute. Aleksandrov chopped down Babenko fifty kilometres from either goal and picked up his second yellow just as the air-raid siren sounded.

During the enforced half-hour break, Rotan changed his front line and got it right again. Haiduchyk came on for Krasnopir and gave this meeting of Wolves a particular edge. Ten minutes after coming on, he struck the post from Nazarenko’s pass. Soon afterwards Stefaniuk tipped Emërllahu’s shot onto the bar. As the final seconds ran down, the two Polissia players who had hit the woodwork combined and this time got it right. The Kosovan sent Haiduchyk through to face Stefaniuk, and the Polissia striker showed his former club no mercy. That is Wolves for you…

Oleh Shandruk, Veres head coach: “Aleksandrov’s second-half red card finished us off and took away our chance of coming back. We have serious selection problems through injury and suspension, and we were without several leaders today. The international break is coming and we badly need to reset.”

Ruslan Rotan, Polissia head coach: “It was a really tight game, especially in the first half when they pressed high. But the lads stuck at it and waited for their chances. I’m glad the substitutions worked a treat. The lads who came on gave us more bite and we finally wore Veres down.”