Spartak Nalchik continued their fine start to the Russian Premier League season with a 1-0 home win over struggling Krylya Sovetov on Sunday to retake top spot from Rubin.
The reigning champions beat Amkar 1-0 on Saturday to go above the surprise leaders overnight. The Tatar side drew with Spartak Nalchik in the last round of games and the win in Perm was their first victory in four games.
Vladimir Kisenkov's goal in the 27th minute was enough for Spartak and they now have four wins from six games - half their total for all of last season - and 14 points, two ahead of Rubin.
The league's other two undefeated sides, CSKA Moscow and Zenit St. Petersburg, are on 11 points after drawing with Lokomotiv Moscow and Tom Tomsk, respectively, on Saturday. They have a game in hand on the top two after their showdown at Luzhniki last week was postponed.
CSKA took the lead in the seventh minute through Brazilian striker Guilherme, but the Railwaymen leveled in the last minute, Oleg Kuzmin grabbing the equalizer.
"Goals in the final minutes are a painful blow to your pride," veteran CSKA defender Sergei Ignashevich said, lamenting the army side's failure to hold on to the lead. "In the end, Lokomotiv coped with their task and we, unfortunately, did not."
Lokomotiv trainer Yury Semin was happy to come back after conceding the early goal, but felt his side was denied two penalties as they pressed in the final 10 minutes.
"Look at the 81st and 86th minutes," he told journalists afterwards. "I think they are two 100-percent penalties."
"[Renat] Yanbayev shot and it hit the hand of [Chidi] Odiah. [Alexei] Berezutsky hugged [Marco] Basa," he said. "I stand by my opinion - the refereeing was biased."
There was little excitement in Tomsk, where Zenit's game with Tom finished goalless. The Siberian's are a respectable sixth, level on nine points with Spartak Moscow, who stretched their unbeaten run to five games with a 0-0 draw against Moscow Region side Saturn.
The fourth of the Moscow sides, Dynamo, also drew, 1-1 against Terek in Grozny. Dmitry Kombarov put the visitors ahead on the hour, but Shamil Lakhiyanov scored a penalty in the sixth minute of injury time to rescue a draw for the Chechen side.
Neither coach was happy with the refereeing, with Anatoly Baidachny claiming Terek should have had three first-half penalties and fully deserved their late equalizer, while Andrei Kobelev accused the officials of bias.
"Of course, we are very very upset. We played to win, but it is impossible to play against 13 players, or 14 or 12 - whichever you want," the Dynamo trainer said after the match.
In a match-up between promoted sides on Saturday, Alania Vladikavkaz got their first win of the season 2-1, leaving Sibir bottom with just one point. The other promoted side, Anzhi Makhachkala, go for their third straight win against Rostov on Monday.
Saturday's results
Tom Tomsk 0-0 Zenit St. Petersburg
CSKA Moscow 1-1 Lokomotiv Moscow
Amkar 0-1 Rubin
Alania Vladikavkaz 2-1 Sibir
Sunday's results
Terek 1-1 Dinamo
Saturn 0-0 Spartak
Spartak Nalchik 1-0 Krylya Sovetov
Monday's game
Anzhi Makhachkala - Rostov
Table (six games unless stated)
Spartak Nalchik 14
Rubin 12
CSKA Moscow 11 (5 games)
Zenit St. Petersburg 11 (5)
Spartak Moscow 9
Tom Tomsk 9
Terek Grozny 9
Rostov 7 (5 games)
Amkar Perm 7
Lokomotiv Moscow 7
Anzhi Makhachkala 7 (5 games)
Dynamo Moscow 6
Alania Vladikavkaz 5
Saturn 4
Krylya Sovetov 3
Sibir 1
MOSCOW, April 18 (RIA Novosti)
