Marked for Samuel Mathias
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
Two goals and a mark of 8.24 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Dimitrije Aćimović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad9 Nov 2026
A row about effort at OFK Vršac
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Strahinja Mladenović was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The terraces9 Nov 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 20-year-old it feels ownership of. Andrej Petrović has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Match7 Nov 2026
Late, late show earns OFK Vršac a point
Minute 89, against Loznica, and a goal that felt like a win to everybody who had stayed. It was a draw. Nobody leaving the ground will describe it as one.
Squad9 Nov 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; OFK Vršac are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match7 Nov 2026
It needed Andrej Petrović to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Loznica, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
Squad9 Nov 2026
No place for Karol Cywiński in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation OFK Vršac are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad12 Oct 2026
Dimitrije Aćimović and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Everybody at OFK Vršac saw it before anybody said it, which is how this always goes. At 34 the decline is real and measurable — 3 points — and the only question left is how the club handles somebody it owes a great deal to.
Squad12 Oct 2026
Branislav Kocić falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
It is not much of a headline and it is the reason players believe the next promise. OFK Vršac told Andrej Petrović something would happen and then it happened, which in this industry passes for remarkable.
Squad12 Oct 2026
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; OFK Vršac are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Irfan Kahrović's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Aleksandar Stanković is on it.
The dugout12 Oct 2026
The manager makes an example of Samuel Mathias
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Looking ahead12 Oct 2026
He used to wear the other shirt. On Saturday he plays against Tekstilac Odžaci in this one, and whatever he says this week about it being just another game will be untrue.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 33 in, 23 out at OFK Vršac
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 33 arrived, 23 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Mladost Lucani is saying, and nobody at OFK Vršac is enjoying the guessing.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words exchanged at OFK Vršac
Vanja Apostolovski and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. OFK Beograd have kept their man, and OFK Vršac go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at OFK Vršac training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Strahinja Mladenović is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Andrej Popov is the division's best young player this month
At 19 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. OFK Vršac will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Market7 Sep 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at OFK Vršac, another week without a signature from Dimitrije Aćimović.
Squad7 Sep 2026
A place in the month's best eleven for Andrej Popov
Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Andrej Popov has come out of that comparison in the side, and OFK Vršac have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Marko Velevski
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.