Marked for Linas Cernych
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market28 Sep 2026
“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 The request is on a desk at Trakai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Tempers go at Trakai
Linas Cernych 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.
Squad28 Sep 2026
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Giorgos Katris 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.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market21 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trakai can pretend not to have heard.
Squad21 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 Trakai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Giorgos Katris 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.
Loan watch21 Sep 2026
“I did not go to Utenis to sit and watch. I want to come back to Trakai and fight for my place.” 0 appearances in 5 matches say the rest.
Squad21 Sep 2026
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Darius Vaitkunas commits to Trakai for another 3 years.
Squad21 Sep 2026
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.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market7 Sep 2026
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Trakai can pretend not to have heard.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Víctor Florentín 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
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Trakai know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad24 Aug 2026
Mantas Simkus decides it from twelve yards
2 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.
Match19 Aug 2026
Trakai bow out of the cup
Suduva go through and Trakai 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
Zalgiris come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Trakai did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market24 Aug 2026
“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 Trakai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Víctor Florentín 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.
Squad24 Aug 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.
Squad24 Aug 2026
There is a level at which a footballer stops being tested and starts being contained, and he reached it some time ago. Trakai know it, and so does everybody who watches him.
Player ratings24 Aug 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.
Market24 Aug 2026
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Rokas Dubickas has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Trakai.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Match12 Aug 2026
Cup progress for Trakai
A 1‑0 win over Siauliai, a place in the next round, and the quiet arithmetic every supporter does on the walk home: how many more until a final?
Match12 Aug 2026
There is no crueller way to lose a football match. Trakai scored in the 120th minute, the restart barely happened, and the away end was still standing when the whistle went.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
There is exactly one of these per career and it does not usually go like this. 0 on the scoresheet, 7.51 beside the name, and a crowd that had never seen him before chanting it by the end.
Squad17 Aug 2026
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.
Market17 Aug 2026
The name of Mantas Simkus has come up in conversations Trakai were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Tempers go at Trakai
Linas Cernych 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 terraces17 Aug 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Mantas Simkus 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.
Squad17 Aug 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 16. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Market3 Aug 2026
“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 Trakai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Artem Mitin 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 Trakai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Trakai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Linas Simkus 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.
Market3 Aug 2026
Add another name to the list: Utenis have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Mantas Dubickas. The answer from Trakai has not changed — yet.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Edgaras Paulauskas and Trakai agree another 1 years.