Kazakhstan round-up: Tobol take top spot
Sunday, June 1, 2003
Article summary
FC Tobol Kostanay moved clear at the top of the table with four points from their two matches this week.
Article body
FC Tobol Kostanay moved clear at the top of the Kazakh Super League following a 3-0 win against FC Ekibastuzets Ekibastyz and 1-1 draw with champions FC Irtysh Pavlodar.
Points dropped
FC Zhenis Astana, league leaders prior to this week's action, only claimed three points from their two matches, allowing Tobol to take top spot. Having fallen to a single-goal defeat at the hands of Irtysh, Astana bounced back with a 1-0 success against Ekibastuzets.
Another draw
FK Aktobe Lento, who started the season with five straight victories, have now drawn three successive matches including this week's fixtures against FC Shakhtyor Karaganda and FC Kairat Almaty.
Shakhtyor end sequence
Shakhtyor, who had drawn their previous four games, finally managed to put an end to this run as they beat FC Batys Uralsk 2-0. Batys also lost 4-0 against Kairat and are now bottom of the table with just six points from eight games.
Duo victorious
Both FC Yelimai Semey and FK Atyrau recorded two wins out of two this week. Yelimai beat FC Yesil Bogatyr Petropavlovsk 4-0, thanks to a hat-trick from Oleg Litvinenko, and then claimed a 1-0 win against FC Yesil Kokshetau, with Livinenko on target once again.
Maximum points
Atyrau also took maximum points from their two away games, triumphing 2-1 against FC Ordabasy Shymkent before moving into fourth place in the standings following a thrilling 3-2 victory over FC Kaisar Kyzylorda.
Vital victory
FC Vostok Oskemen moved from the foot of the table when they drew 0-0 with Yesil and overcame Yesil-Bogatyr 2-1. Elsewhere, FC Taraz played out a 1-1 draw with FC Zhetysu Taldukorgan.
