Marked for Darius Novikovas
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market31 Aug 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 Stumbras can pretend not to have heard.
Squad31 Aug 2026
Brutal, unambiguous and, for all the horror of the moment, usually less career-shaped than the ligament everybody fears more. 16 days, a clean timeline, and a return date somebody can actually plan around.
Market31 Aug 2026
Stumbras say no — this time
The offer from Siauliai for Vitalijs Zjuzins was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad17 Aug 2026
There were 17 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.
Match12 Aug 2026
The small margins put Stumbras out
Out, 0‑0 to Suduva, and the long argument about which of the small moments decided it. The league is all there is now, and everybody knows it.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
A first appearance Edvinas Jankauskas will want to forget — 5.80
Everybody's debut is one of two stories and this was the other one. 5.80, and the only consolation available is that nobody's career has ever been decided by ninety minutes in a shirt he had just been given.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Marius Mikoliunas 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.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Lukas Novikovas 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.
Squad17 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.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Successful dribbles: 17. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Twelve yards, a goalkeeper guessing, and it still did not go in. He will take the next one, and every soul in the ground will hold their breath.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Shots: 5, enough of them from close enough that a striker in form scores two. He is not a striker in form.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market3 Aug 2026
“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.
Squad3 Aug 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 Stumbras this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Vykintas Lasickas and Stumbras agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.