Marked for Donatas Barauskas
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad8 Jan 2029
Bohdan Shmyhelskyi damages knee ligaments — 24 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 24 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Gonzalo Gamarra 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.
Squad8 Jan 2029
A season average of 7.29 with 13 goals behind it. Opponents have started planning around him, which is the sincerest compliment football pays.
Squad8 Jan 2029
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Donatas Barauskas has just signed for Floriana, and for once the answer mattered.
Match6 Jan 2029
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nicolas Verkooijen. 1‑0 against Sliema Wanderers, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 19 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
Player ratings8 Jan 2029
A performance of 8.08 does not come along often, and when it does the rest of the team becomes scenery. He was magnificent.
Boardroom8 Jan 2029
$535.1K on the table at Floriana
The board have answered with money instead of encouragement, which is the only answer a manager ever wants. Spending it well is now entirely his problem.
Loan watch8 Jan 2029
“I did not go to Pescara to sit and watch. I want to come back to Floriana and fight for my place.” 2 appearances in 26 matches say the rest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad10 Jul 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 72 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market10 Jul 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market10 Jul 2028
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad10 Jul 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad10 Jul 2028
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vykintas Jankauskas 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.
Squad10 Jul 2028
The medical room confirms 15 days on the sidelines for Vikintas Simkus, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad26 Jun 2028
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 86 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad26 Jun 2028
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Utenis may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Market26 Jun 2028
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market26 Jun 2028
Terms are settled between the clubs and the rest is paperwork and a photograph. Around Utenis they have already started talking about him in the past tense.
Squad26 Jun 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad26 Jun 2028
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jakub Burkowski 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Match25 Mar 2028
No mercy from Utenis
Stumbras will want this one forgotten quickly: 8‑0, every duel lost, and a long ride home. Utenis were ruthless in the way good sides are ruthless.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Two goals and a mark of 8.81 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad27 Mar 2028
3 goals in one game. The first was taken well, the second was taken greedily, and by the third the crowd were simply waiting for him to get the ball.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.36, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Tempers go at Utenis
Richecard Richard 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.
Match25 Mar 2028
Defending was optional and nobody took up the option. 8 goals between Utenis and Stumbras, and not one of the people who paid to be there will ask for the money back.
Player ratings27 Mar 2028
Mantas Kuklys was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.86. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad27 Mar 2028
Vykintas Jankauskas 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 terraces27 Mar 2028
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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Feb 2028
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Marius Mikoliunas will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Utenis the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Squad7 Feb 2028
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Utenis this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Feb 2028
Words at Utenis training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Vykintas Jankauskas 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.