On October 19, the last matches of the Top Division of the Tver Region Football Championship 2024 took place, the first round of which took place on April 28. 16 amateur teams from 13 localities in the region took part in it. “Caravan” sums up the season.
Champion race
In issue No. 16 of April 24, “Caravan” published a preview of the championship, in which it divided the participating teams into three categories: contenders, middlings and underdogs (teams with the least chance of winning).
- 1. Contenders: “Techno-Sonkovo”, “Zvezda” (Kimry), SC “Tver”, SSHOR (Tver), “Udacha” (Tver) and “Toropchanin-Geksa”.
- 2. Middle peasants: “Bumazhnik” (Kuvshinovo), “Redkino”, “Likhoslavl”, “Volochanin”, “Seliger”, “Rzhev”.
- 3. Underdogs: Nelidovo, Veresk, Verkhnevolzhye, Spirovo.
Now let’s look at the final standings:
As a result, we perfectly guessed the top three: Techno-Sonkovo took first place for the second year, Zvezda took second, and SK Tver took third. We also included “Bumazhnik” in the middle peasants, but noted that one of these middle peasant teams will definitely shoot and break into the top eight. Perhaps “Wallet”, who took fourth place in the championship last year. In 2024, the Kuvshinov team again took fourth place. We only underestimated Ostashkov’s Seliger, which ultimately took fifth place in the standings.
The championship race ended one round before the end: Techno-Sonkovo secured a 5-point lead over Zvezda, which secured the same points advantage over SK Tver, which became the bronze medalist, beating “Zvezda” on the same day. Wallet”. Let us note that for the first time in the last three years, not a single team went through the entire championship without defeat: in 2022, SC Tver did not lose even once, and in 2023, Techno-Sonkovo did not lose. This year, Zvezda went undefeated for 18 matches, and in the 19th round they lost to the future champions, the Sonkovo team.
Tekhno-Sonkovo also takes the lead in goals scored – 94. Zvezda is in second place in this indicator (92), and SSHOR is in third (57). The gap between the leaders and everyone else is visible to the naked eye. But the situation is different in terms of goals conceded, although Techno-Sonkovo is still better than the rest. The champions conceded 12 goals, followed by SC Tver, which conceded only 15, then Zvezda – 25.
The top scorers of the championship were Artem Roshchin (Zvezda) and Nikita Lebedev (Techno-Sonkovo), but not everything is so simple here. On the last game day of the championship, Techno-Sonkovo met with Seliger on their home field. After a controversial refereeing decision at the end of the first half, the Ostashkovites stopped playing and defiantly allowed their opponents to score goals into their own goal. Thus, Nikita Lebedev added three more goals to five goals in the first half and equaled Artem Roshchin in the number of goals scored. The scorers each had 38 effective shots in 20 (Lebedev) and 21 (Roshchin) matches. Let us also note that Roshchin scored 11 goals from the penalty spot, and Lebedev scored none.
The list of the 10 best scorers in the Top Division of the Tver Region Championship is as follows:
Battle for survival
At the bottom of the standings, a trio of outsiders quickly formed: Toropchanin-Geksa, Verkhnevolzhye and Nelidovo. Two rounds before the end, the Nelidovo team refused to participate in the championship, and they were awarded a technical defeat with a score of 0:3. Thus, Nelidovo became the first team to lose the chance to maintain their registration in the Top Division in 2025. “Verkhnevolzhye” and “Toropchanin-Geksa” fought until the last for 14th place (play-off zone), but in the end the Toropets team turned out to be stronger. “Verkhnevolzhye” and “Nelidovo” are relegated to the First Division of the Tver Region Championship, and “Toropchanin-Geksa” will play against the “Torzhok” team in the coming weeks.
Perhaps the fact that before the start of the championship we entered Toropchanin-Geksa into the category of contenders is our biggest mistake. When the team took gold in the First Division in 2023, we could not even imagine that in the end the team would fight for survival. In turn, we expected a downgrade from Verkhnevolzhye and Nelidov.
The teams “ASO” (Bezhetsk) and “Energetik” (Udomlya) have already received a ticket to the Premier Division 2025.
Bottom line
Let us note one regularity. Football players from the Moscow region play for Techno-Sonkovo. Zvezda players actively practice in Dubna, that is, also in the Moscow region. SC “Tver” invites several football players from Moscow, and Kuvshinov’s “Bumazhnik” – from Tver. In this regard, the Ostashkovo “Seliger” stands out, which has a minimum of non-resident football players, and the coaching staff actively attracts talent from the local football academy. However, in terms of the final position in the standings and the pattern of play, “Seliger” is significantly inferior to the leaders, as are other teams.
Obviously, the leaders of the Tver region championship have outgrown regional competitions. Whether they will try their luck in matches, for example, of the Golden Ring championship, the question remains open. It all depends on their desire and availability of funds for expensive participation in the interregional tournament.
Kirill Salimov
