Marked for Kristaps Fertovs
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2027
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Marcis Rugins is a better footballer than he was
Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 18 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.
The terraces22 Mar 2027
At 19 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.
Match20 Mar 2027
Three points for Skonto, 2‑0 the final word against Daugavpils in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Krišs Kārkliņš was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.01. 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.
Squad22 Mar 2027
26 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
Player ratings22 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad22 Mar 2027
Ben Drake 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 dugout22 Mar 2027
The manager’s verdict
“I am not going to get carried away and I will not let them either. It was a good day. There will be harder ones.” Raivis Jurkovskis kept it short after the 2‑0 win, which is what managers do when they are happy.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad23 Nov 2026
Roberts Bulvitis damages knee ligaments — 74 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 74 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.
Squad23 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Skonto
Pavels Zjuzins 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.
The dugout23 Nov 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 Kaspars Tarasovs is on it.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Boardroom16 Nov 2026
Skonto lift the trophy
The season a town measures the next twenty against. The trophy comes home with the squad, and the route through the streets was agreed days ago.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Roberts Bulvitis
82 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Skonto lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A falling-out at Skonto
Kristaps Fertovs and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad9 Nov 2026
90 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Skonto lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match4 Nov 2026
Skonto bow out of the cup
Ventspils go through and Skonto go home, 1‑1 the scoreline that did it. The dressing room will call the league the priority now, because that is what dressing rooms say.
Squad9 Nov 2026
1 kept out in the shoot-out, and a stadium that will still be describing them in twenty years. A goalkeeper only needs one of these to be remembered forever.
Match4 Nov 2026
A point taken on 90 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.
Player ratings9 Nov 2026
It was his to settle and he did not settle it. A long walk back to the halfway line, and a considerably longer week.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Tempers go at Skonto
Kaspars Oss 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 ratings9 Nov 2026
A mark of 7.62, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout9 Nov 2026
The manager’s verdict
“I am frustrated, honestly. We did enough to win and we did not win.” Raivis Jurkovskis was not hiding it after 1‑1, and nobody in the Skonto dressing room was either.
Squad9 Nov 2026
Marcis Rugins 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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad28 Sep 2026
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Skonto this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Marcis Rugins 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 dugout28 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Raivis Rugins
“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.