Marked for Gregor Tóth
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match4 Dec 2027
No end in sight to Zlate Moravce's wait for a win
17 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Zlate Moravce has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad6 Dec 2027
113 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zlate Moravce lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Boardroom6 Dec 2027
The board’s statement ran to three sentences and one of them mentioned results. Michal Hrosovsky has managed long enough to translate: win soon, or the next statement is shorter.
Market6 Dec 2027
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zlate Moravce can pretend not to have heard.
Squad6 Dec 2027
26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match4 Dec 2027
4 matches without a goal for Zlate Moravce
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 4 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad6 Dec 2027
Ján Gregus was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Player ratings6 Dec 2027
Successful dribbles: 17. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
The dugout6 Dec 2027
The team sheet said everything about Vojtěch Kubista
Warm-up bib, ninety minutes of watching, and a handshake at the end that fooled nobody. Big matches tell you who a manager trusts; this one told Vojtěch Kubista.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match13 Nov 2027
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Ján Gregus in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match13 Nov 2027
A point taken on 93 minutes is worth exactly one point and considerably more than that to a dressing room. This side does not stop, which is a reputation worth more than the result.
Squad15 Nov 2027
17 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Match13 Nov 2027
A 2‑2 draw with MFK Ruzomberok leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“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.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Michal Hrosovsky after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
Squad15 Nov 2027
Words at Zlate Moravce training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregor Tóth 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.
The dugout15 Nov 2027
Martin Bukata has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zlate Moravce will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad18 Oct 2027
A knee injury of the worst kind for Denis Skriniar
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Zlate Moravce lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match16 Oct 2027
9 matches without a win for Zlate Moravce
The run now stands at 9, and the questions being asked around Zlate Moravce are no longer polite ones.
Match16 Oct 2027
9 matches without a goal for Zlate Moravce
The chances are being made and something is happening between the making and the finishing. 9 matches now, and the anxiety in the ground arrives a little earlier every week.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Ján Gregus in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match16 Oct 2027
0‑1 to Slovan Bratislava, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
The manager’s verdict
“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 0‑1 Michal Hrosovsky left the room before anybody could ask which.
The dugout18 Oct 2027
Denis Duga gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad18 Oct 2027
Gregor Tóth 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 dugout18 Oct 2027
Marko Totka has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Zlate Moravce will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match25 Sep 2027
6 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Match25 Sep 2027
6 matches, no goals, and a training ground that has tried everything. It will end — droughts always do — but nobody at Zlate Moravce can tell you which week it ends in.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Adam Pudil in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match25 Sep 2027
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
“I could talk about decisions and I could talk about luck. I will not. We lost.” The manager, 0‑1, and a press conference that lasted four minutes.
Player ratings27 Sep 2027
Dawda Darboe beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 15. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
The dugout27 Sep 2027
Saihou Sonko gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad27 Sep 2027
Words at Zlate Moravce training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Gregor Tóth 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.
Squad27 Sep 2027
One booking too many, and a game watched from the stand. Zlate Moravce lose him for the most avoidable reason in the sport.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market23 Aug 2027
“This is not anger. I have thought about it for months, and nothing that has happened lately changed my mind.” The request is on a desk at Zlate Moravce, and it is not being withdrawn.
Market23 Aug 2027
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. Zlate Moravce have lost him in all but the paperwork.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the team. 6 saves, several of them the sort nobody expects to see stopped, and a scoreline that flatters everybody in front of him.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Ján Gregus in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Zlate Moravce this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets23 Aug 2027
Zlate Moravce asked and Slovan Bratislava said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
The terraces23 Aug 2027
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Filipe Quintas 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.
Match21 Aug 2027
DAC Dunajska Streda left with the points after a 0‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Player ratings23 Aug 2027
Successful dribbles: 19. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
In brief
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Player ratings
Filipe Quintas was on a different afternoon to everybody else
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The dugout
Branislav Sokol gets it from the manager
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The dugout
The view from the dugout
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match14 Nov 2026
13 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Squad16 Nov 2026
76 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Zlate Moravce lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match14 Nov 2026
1‑4 to Spartak Trnava, and it was every bit as bad as the number suggests. There are defeats you argue about and defeats you apologise for; this was the second kind.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A one-man rearguard from Gregor Tóth
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Player ratings16 Nov 2026
Martin Bukata pops up at the right end — 7.55
7.55, 1 on the scoresheet, and the specific comedy of a back-four player celebrating like somebody who does this every week. He does not, and that is exactly why the ground reacted the way it did.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Ján Gregus and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Zlate Moravce training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Martin Bukata 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Boardroom16 Nov 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match5 Sep 2026
0‑5 against MSK Zilina, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market7 Sep 2026
Denis Duga hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Zlate Moravce can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 19 in, 0 out at Zlate Moravce
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 19 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The clubs had agreed and the player had not. A snub, and a public one: Viktoria Plzen keep him, and the supporters here are left wondering what he had heard about the place.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Ján Gregus was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Squad7 Sep 2026
200 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“The supporters are entitled to be angry. So am I. We will put it right.” 0‑5, a manager saying the necessary things, and a dressing room that heard a different version of them.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Beaten 5 times: a bad day for Gregor Tóth
3 saves does not settle the argument about whose fault it was, and the argument will run all week. Goalkeepers carry these scorelines whoever caused them.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
9 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The deal with MSK Zilina is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Ján Gregus 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 targets17 Aug 2026
No deal for Fabian Bzdyl at that price
Zlate Moravce offered $16.0K; MSK Zilina said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. MSK Zilina have kept their man, and Zlate Moravce go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
The terraces17 Aug 2026
The crowd has taken to Gregor Tóth
At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Dukla Prague: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Too much change too quickly at Zlate Moravce
6 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Match15 Aug 2026
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad3 Aug 2026
A one-man rearguard from Gregor Tóth
There were 6 saves in it, and at least three that had no business being saves at all. The ten outfield players owe him a drink and they know it.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vojtěch Kubista and Zlate Moravce agree another 2 years.
Match1 Aug 2026
0‑2 to MFK Skalica, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Market3 Aug 2026
“We are a long way apart, and pretending otherwise helps nobody.” Neither side is close, and the calendar is not on the club's side.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Denis Duga and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑2 defeat, delivered by Michal Hrosovsky to a room that had heard them before.
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
A loan enquiry to Pribram: cover, or a look at somebody the club cannot afford to buy yet. Either way the answer will come back inside the week.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Filip Balaj, and the manager let it.
The dugout3 Aug 2026
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.