“The captain of the Poltava team shared his impressions of the first part of the season”, — write: sport.ua
– If we leave last, everything speaks for itself. In my opinion, in some games we did not get points. Some referee errors did not play into our hands. It’s okay. We took points from Kryvbas, Kolos, Dynamo. This half year, we have never played in our optimal composition. With each tour, someone was added and flew to the infirmary. I no longer believe that Poltava will be able to perform optimally in the UPL.
Psychology? We have never encountered anything like this before. We got into completely different realities compared to the First League. A lot of work was done in the training process and psychologically, we did not give up.
Opponents are preparing well against you. Maximum neutralization of your strengths, leaving at the expense of our weaknesses. There are not many guys in our team who could boast of playing experience at this level.
Finances? It’s no secret that we have modest conditions by UPL standards. We are not pampered, but we know that all questions will be closed before us. Winter meeting? Nothing was said about the meeting. I am in the team for the third year, and they always worked on the floor, but this did not prevent us from winning against the champion of Ukraine.
Sensational victory over Dynamo? After the game, the phone was red with calls and greetings. People with whom I had not communicated for 5-7 years reminded me of myself. Someone has not even lived in Ukraine for a long time, but watched the game with Dynamo.
There was no special mood. They were preparing as for a regular championship game. When we went to the warm-up, we got a kick out of the atmosphere at the legendary stadium, the perfect field, the stands close to us. All that remained was to play and have fun. I still have a cool memory with Dynamo Stadium, when we came here to play with Metalist 1925 in the First League, which in many ways became the key for us in that campaign.
The difference with the stadium in Kropyvnytskyi? If we compare the field where we train, the Zirka stadium is comparable to Camp Nou for us.
The death of Volodymyr Sysenko? For our club, his personality can be compared with Lobanovskyi at Dynamo or Ferguson at Manchester United. Volodymyr Anatoliyovych conquered with honesty and justice, gave many boys a chance to make their way to a high level.
I think that yes, Ihor Tymchenko, who works as an assistant, can be called his follower. Viktorovych can safely be called the heir of Anatoliyovych. In six months in the First League, we all grew up together and I don’t want to leave the UPL so quickly.
Scandals: stadium, games on the tote? If we had played in Poltava, I give a million percent that we would not be where we are now. We can say that we live in the schedule of our teams playing in the European Cups. As for the totalizer, it is full of delusion.
Viktor Vatsk’s statement after the historic success with Dynamo? It does not stick in any way. If they started talking about us, then we are doing everything right. Criticism must be answered with results.
What will the team have to work on at the meeting? First of all, to avoid many injuries. When all Poltava football players are in the bracket, then in the spring you will see a more interesting team.