Marked for Paulius Sernas
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match23 Aug 2027
Stumbras are in real trouble now
Position 6, 16 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Lukas Girdvainis 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.
Squad23 Aug 2027
Lukas Barauskas 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match31 May 2027
Stumbras are in real trouble now
Position 6, 15 points, and a fixture list with fewer games left in it than excuses. The arithmetic is not cruel yet, but it has stopped being kind.
Player ratings31 May 2027
Age has not caught Saulius Simkus yet — 8.11
At 34 he is supposed to be managing his minutes. Instead he was marked 8.11 and looked, for ninety minutes, exactly like the player everybody remembers.
Match29 May 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Stumbras
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad31 May 2027
Ignas Dapkus 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match29 May 2027
It finished 2‑2, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad31 May 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.
Squad31 May 2027
The division's best last weekend was a Stumbras man
It is a small honour and it is not nothing: somebody watched every match in the division and decided that Tomas Barauskas was the best thing in any of them.
Squad31 May 2027
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Player ratings31 May 2027
He was not in the side at half past three and he had settled it before five. Half an hour, and Stumbras had a different afternoon.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings10 May 2027
Successful dribbles: 61. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Match8 May 2027
1‑4 to Atlantas, 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.
Market10 May 2027
“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.
Squad10 May 2027
The manager makes an example of Lukas Eliosius
“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.
Squad10 May 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Boardroom10 May 2027
Nobody left the Stumbras dressing room in a hurry
The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad19 Apr 2027
Ignas Dapkus 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.
Match17 Apr 2027
Suduva left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
Squad19 Apr 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.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Clubs make promises constantly and the page usually only hears about them when they are broken. This one was honoured, and the dressing room noticed that faster than any supporter did.
Player ratings19 Apr 2027
Ten men and a goalkeeper behind him, and it still finished in the net. He knew before anybody told him, and nobody at Stumbras needed to.
Squad19 Apr 2027
Tomas Barauskas has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Stumbras 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
Uneasy
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Two goals and a mark of 8.86 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Market12 Apr 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 Stumbras can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Successful dribbles: 26. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Ignas Dapkus 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Match10 Apr 2027
A 3‑1 win over Siauliai, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings12 Apr 2027
Ninety minutes of Tomas Barauskas at his very best
Marked 8.32. Players have careers without a single afternoon like this in them, and he has just had one in front of everybody at Stumbras.
Squad12 Apr 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modestas Dapkus 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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“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.
Squad12 Apr 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Ignas Vaitkunas and Stumbras agree another 3 years.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Player ratings29 Mar 2027
Successful dribbles: 35. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match27 Mar 2027
Nowhere to hide for Stumbras
1‑4 against Utenis, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
Market29 Mar 2027
“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.
Match27 Mar 2027
No end in sight to Stumbras's wait for a win
5 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Stumbras has to find a result from somewhere.
Match27 Mar 2027
No clean sheets in sight for Stumbras
5 games now with at least two against. The back line has been rearranged, the goalkeeper has been backed publicly, and the goals keep going in anyway.
Squad29 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2027
The manager makes an example of Paulius Sernas
“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.
Boardroom29 Mar 2027
The music was off and the showers ran late. What was said in that dressing room stays there, but Saturday will publish the minutes.
Loan watch29 Mar 2027
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at Stumbras, and 0 appearances in 9 say he has earned the hearing.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2027
Ignas Dapkus 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad1 Feb 2027
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Paulius Sernas and Stumbras agree another 3 years.
Squad1 Feb 2027
Words at Stumbras training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Modestas Dapkus 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
Uneasy
Market25 Jan 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 Stumbras, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Ignas Dapkus 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.
Market25 Jan 2027
Add another name to the list: Siauliai have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Fiodor Vaitkunas. The answer from Stumbras has not changed — yet.
Squad25 Jan 2027
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Lukas Barauskas, and the manager let it.
Market25 Jan 2027
At 34, he has seen every situation this season can produce, twice. The legs will be managed; the head is the purchase.
Squad25 Jan 2027
Paulius Sernas asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.