Agroproom Volochysk and Lokomotiv Kyiv played out a 0:0 draw in the fourth round of the First League on Friday. The result leaves the hosts five points clear of the bottom half while the visitors remain rooted to the bottom of the table. By then the summer window had closed and both sides were already looking at the league table with clear eyes.
There were no chances created in the opening half, though D. Romanenko picked up a yellow card in the fortieth minute for a challenge that could have been a lot worse. The second half opened with a double change from Lokomotiv, bringing on A. Syomka and A. Borovskyi in the forty-sixth minute. And here's the thing about a game like this — you watch for movement in the wide areas, and there was none.
Lokomotiv pushed again in the sixtieth minute, substituting O. Len for something different. S. Myakushko followed in the sixty-second, then appeared again in the sixty-third, which suggests a confusion on the bench that neither manager could sort out in real time. D. Golub also went offside in the sixty-sixth minute, picking up a booking that did not change the shape of the game.
The final third of the match saw three more substitutions: V. Teplyi and O. Sakhnenko came on in the eighty-sixth and eighty-seventh minutes, while V. Tymenko arrived in stoppage time at ninety-plus-two. Neither side managed to break the deadlock, and the match ended with the same scoreline that the bookmakers had quietly expected before kick-off.
Agroproom sit fifth after six games with ten points, three wins and two defeats. Lokomotiv occupy fifteenth place with only three points from three draws and three losses. To be fair the visitors have not lost a match in five games, but they have not won any either, and a draw keeps you exactly where you started.