Marked for Vikintas Dapkus
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Sep 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad6 Sep 2038
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market6 Sep 2038
“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 The request is on a desk at Siauliai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Squad6 Sep 2038
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Siauliai have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad6 Sep 2038
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vikintas Dapkus and Siauliai agree another 2 years.
Boardroom6 Sep 2038
The Siauliai production line keeps running
88 graduates out of an academy now rated 3 out of 20. Clubs this size survive on exactly that, and the town knows every name.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad12 Apr 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 20 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market12 Apr 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Siauliai is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
Match10 Apr 2038
The wait goes on for Siauliai
4 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.
Squad12 Apr 2038
28 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad12 Apr 2038
“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 ratings12 Apr 2038
Marked 8.21 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad5 Apr 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 27 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Match31 Mar 2038
The small margins put Siauliai out
Out, 0‑2 to Kauno Zalgiris, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Match5 Apr 2038
Siauliai are in among the leaders
Position 2 and 10 points on the board. Nobody at the ground will say the word out loud yet, and everybody at the ground is thinking it.
The terraces5 Apr 2038
The ground has had enough
“We travel everywhere and we get this.” 11 of the 31 senior players heard it walking off, and the ones who did not hear it were not playing.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikolay Barovskiy commits to Siauliai for another 3 years.
Match3 Apr 2038
A bad afternoon for Siauliai against Suduva
0‑2 to Suduva, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad5 Apr 2038
“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.
Squad5 Apr 2038
Vikintas Klimavicius is the division's best young player this month
At 21 he has spent a month being better than everybody his age in the league, which is a different and harder thing than one good afternoon. Siauliai will try very hard not to make too much of it.
Player ratings5 Apr 2038
Successful dribbles: 15. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad29 Mar 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 34 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market29 Mar 2038
“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 Siauliai, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match27 Mar 2038
Still nobody has beaten Siauliai
The unbeaten run reaches 9. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Squad29 Mar 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2038
“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.
Player ratings29 Mar 2038
Successful dribbles: 16. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Match27 Mar 2038
It finished 1‑1, and it somehow always looked like it would. One of those afternoons where the table moves less than the tempers.
Squad29 Mar 2038
Cristian Cruz has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Siauliai 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.
Player ratings29 Mar 2038
Marked 5.80, and generously at that. Nothing came off, and by the end the crowd had stopped expecting it to.
In brief
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Player ratings
Off the bench and decisive: Arvydas Simkus
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Boardroom
The Siauliai production line keeps running
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad22 Mar 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tadas Barauskas
18 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 41 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
A brace, and Donatas Novikovas takes the afternoon — 8.46
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Donatas Novikovas provided it, and the 8.46 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Match20 Mar 2038
Nobody wants to play Siauliai right now
3 wins in a row changes how opponents warm up: quieter, more glances across. Runs end, everybody knows that — but nobody in this dressing room is planning for it.
Match20 Mar 2038
A 3‑1 win over Kauno Zalgiris, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Marked 9.12 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad22 Mar 2038
Justas Simkus 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.
Squad22 Mar 2038
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Nikita Shevchenko commits to Siauliai for another 1 years.
Player ratings22 Mar 2038
Successful dribbles: 5. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad15 Mar 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tadas Barauskas
25 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad15 Mar 2038
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 48 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Squad15 Mar 2038
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Siauliai may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Match13 Mar 2038
Ninety minutes of very little, and then everything at once. The winner arrived in the 85th, and Utenis spent what remained of the match appealing to the referee rather than chasing the ball.
Market15 Mar 2038
Fee agreed, terms agreed, medical booked. Donatas Valskis will be somebody else’s player by the weekend, and around Siauliai the goodbyes have quietly begun.
Match13 Mar 2038
Whatever happens, Siauliai do not lose
7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Squad15 Mar 2038
“Some mornings you wake up and you are still a long way from everything you know.” It is not the football and it never was; Siauliai are dealing with a man who wants a different country.
Match13 Mar 2038
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Nil Camacho. 1‑0 against Utenis, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.
Player ratings15 Mar 2038
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
Squad8 Mar 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tadas Barauskas
32 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad8 Mar 2038
A fracture rules Vikintas Dapkus out for 56 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad8 Mar 2038
24 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Siauliai know what they have.
Squad8 Mar 2038
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jerónimo Arbeláez and Siauliai agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Boardroom8 Mar 2038
6 academy players handed senior numbers at Siauliai
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Match6 Mar 2038
Still nobody has beaten Siauliai
The unbeaten run reaches 6. Some of them were wins and some were escapes, but a side that refuses to lose is a side other dressing rooms talk about.
Match6 Mar 2038
A 2‑0 win over Atlantas, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Market8 Mar 2038
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Saulius Jankauskas has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market8 Mar 2038
There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Aidas Girdvainis has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Mar 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Tadas Barauskas
39 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad1 Mar 2038
A fracture rules Vikintas Dapkus out for 63 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market1 Mar 2038
“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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad22 Feb 2038
A fracture rules Vikintas Dapkus out for 70 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces22 Feb 2038
Anger at Siauliai spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
Squad22 Feb 2038
35 days, the scan says, and scans are kinder than reality. The fixtures in that window have just become somebody else’s job.
In brief
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Squad
Tempers go at Siauliai
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Squad
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad15 Feb 2038
Radosław Skała damages knee ligaments — 19 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 19 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.
Squad15 Feb 2038
A fracture rules Vikintas Dapkus out for 77 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Market15 Feb 2038
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at Siauliai is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Feb 2038
Radosław Skała damages knee ligaments — 26 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 26 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 Feb 2038
A fracture rules Vikintas Dapkus out for 84 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match8 Feb 2038
Siauliai are in real trouble now
Position 7, 14 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad1 Feb 2038
Radosław Skała damages knee ligaments — 33 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 33 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.
Squad1 Feb 2038
A fracture rules Vikintas Dapkus out for 91 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Boardroom1 Feb 2038
Pressure builds in the Siauliai boardroom
The directors have stopped offering the manager public warmth. In football that is usually the stage before the short statement.
Market1 Feb 2038
“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.
Squad1 Feb 2038
160 appearances across 11 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Siauliai know what they have.
Squad1 Feb 2038
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad25 Jan 2038
Radosław Skała damages knee ligaments — 40 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 40 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.
Squad25 Jan 2038
A fracture rules Vikintas Dapkus out for 98 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
The terraces25 Jan 2038
Anger at Siauliai spills outside the ground
It has stopped being a mood in the stands and started being something organised. Boards can ignore a bad atmosphere for a long time; they cannot ignore this stage of it for very long at all.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad18 Jan 2038
A knee injury of the worst kind for Radosław Skała
48 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad18 Jan 2038
A fracture rules Vikintas Dapkus out for 105 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Squad18 Jan 2038
Nil Camacho 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
Uneasy
Match11 Apr 2037
No end in sight to Siauliai's wait for a win
14 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Siauliai has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad13 Apr 2037
A knee injury of the worst kind for Darius Barauskas
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Siauliai lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Jesús Rengel 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.
Match11 Apr 2037
Siauliai cannot find the net
3 games without scoring. Strikers stop looking up, midfielders take the extra touch, and every shot that clears the bar is followed by a groan that has been building since the last goal.
Squad13 Apr 2037
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Vikintas Klimavicius and Siauliai agree another 3 years.
Squad13 Apr 2037
Ignas Paulauskas 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 ratings13 Apr 2037
Marked 7.67 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Siauliai had the best player on the pitch.
Match11 Apr 2037
Ninety minutes, two goalkeepers with clean gloves, and not one finish worth keeping. Stumbras will be the happier side with the point.
Player ratings13 Apr 2037
Shots: 7, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad27 Oct 2036
A fracture rules Santiago Herrera out for 100 days
Bones knit. That is the one merciful thing about this injury and the reason Siauliai will talk about it more openly than they would about a knee. He will be back, and roughly when they say.
Match24 Oct 2036
A European lesson for Siauliai
3‑4 against Maritimo. Continental football is unforgiving about the things a domestic league lets a side get away with, and this was a night spent finding out which of those the club still has.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 8.03, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.
The terraces27 Oct 2036
The boos come down from three sides
“We pay for this every fortnight. The least we want is somebody who looks like he cares.” 7 of the 31 senior players walked off into it; the rest were not playing.
Match24 Oct 2036
4 matches without a win for Siauliai
The run now stands at 4, and the questions being asked around Siauliai are no longer polite ones.
Squad27 Oct 2036
Words at Siauliai training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Jesús Rengel 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.
Player ratings27 Oct 2036
Marked 8.81 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
Squad27 Oct 2036
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Siauliai this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.