Marked for Thomas Ilsanker
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Squad7 Dec 2026
11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match7 Dec 2026
Every point is an argument now for Grodig
Position 10 and 7 points, and the table gets read bottom-up in this part of town. The calendar has stopped being a schedule and started being a countdown.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Market7 Dec 2026
David Drljić hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Grodig can pretend not to have heard.
Player ratings7 Dec 2026
Thomas Ilsanker, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.88
A mark of 7.88 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
The dugout7 Dec 2026
This is not rotation. David Drljić has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Grodig is pretending otherwise.
Squad7 Dec 2026
A falling-out at Grodig
Benjamin Göschl and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad7 Dec 2026
Christoph Ochrana 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.
Match5 Dec 2026
A bad afternoon for Grodig against Altach
1‑2 to Altach, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match28 Nov 2026
At last: Grodig win one
15 matches without a win, and then this, against Admira Wacker. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Match28 Nov 2026
Some goals win a match and some take one off somebody else. Thomas Ilsanker scored in the 85th minute, Admira Wacker had already begun thinking about the journey home, and Grodig took the lot.
Market30 Nov 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 Grodig, and it is not being withdrawn.
Player ratings30 Nov 2026
Thomas Ilsanker, 19, plays like he has been here for years — 7.96
A mark of 7.96 means one thing beside a twenty-nine-year-old's name and something else entirely beside a 19-year-old's. Nobody at the ground needed telling which this was.
Squad30 Nov 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 Grodig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad30 Nov 2026
Words at Grodig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christoph Ochrana 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.
Match28 Nov 2026
Three points for Grodig, 2‑1 the final word against Admira Wacker in a contest settled by the finer margins.
The terraces30 Nov 2026
He is 18 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.
The dugout30 Nov 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.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad16 Nov 2026
A knee injury of the worst kind for Wolfgang Wober
69 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Mattersburg lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Luis Engelns and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konrad Lindner 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.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Philipp Erhardt, and the manager let it.
Squad16 Nov 2026
Too much change too quickly at Mattersburg
5 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.
Market16 Nov 2026
Another week, another link, another denial nobody quite believes. Mattersburg know the market decides these things, not the back pages — but the back pages are louder.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match31 Oct 2026
13 matches without a win for Grodig
The run now stands at 13, and the questions being asked around Grodig are no longer polite ones.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
No sign of nerves from Thomas Ilsanker at 19 — 7.60
The hardest thing about being 19 in a senior side is that nobody makes allowances. Thomas Ilsanker did not need any: 7.60, and he looked the most comfortable man on the pitch.
Match31 Oct 2026
A bad afternoon for Grodig against SV Ried
1‑3 to SV Ried, and no complaints worth printing. The performance asked for nothing more than it got.
Squad2 Nov 2026
Words at Grodig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christoph Ochrana 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.
The dugout2 Nov 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.
Looking ahead2 Nov 2026
A six-pointer for Grodig
Sturm Graz next, and both sides can do the sum. Win and the table looks different; lose and it looks the way everybody has been fearing.
Market2 Nov 2026
“We keep meeting, and we keep leaving the room with the same numbers we walked in with.” Another round of talks at Grodig, another week without a signature from Anthony Scully.
The dugout2 Nov 2026
“We were not good enough today and I am not going to dress it up.” Gernot Ilsanker after 1‑3, in the tone of a man who knows the next question and does not intend to answer it.
Player ratings2 Nov 2026
Successful dribbles: 15. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
From our football correspondent
Crisis
Match17 Oct 2026
11 matches without a win for Grodig
The run now stands at 11, and the questions being asked around Grodig are no longer polite ones.
The dugout19 Oct 2026
Vlado Graboviča: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Grodig have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Market19 Oct 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 Grodig, and it is not being withdrawn.
Match17 Oct 2026
Grodig cannot find the net
5 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.
Squad19 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Grodig
Benjamin Göschl and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad19 Oct 2026
At 19 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.
Squad19 Oct 2026
A row about effort at Grodig
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christoph Ochrana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout19 Oct 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.
Match17 Oct 2026
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Match20 Sep 2026
The wait goes on for Grodig
8 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.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A falling-out at Grodig
Alexander Schwaighofer and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 20. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A row about effort at Grodig
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Christoph Ochrana was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Christoph Ochrana, and the manager let it.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The view from the dugout
“We did not lose. Some weeks that is all you get, and I would rather have the point than not.” Gernot Ilsanker chose the glass-half-full version of 0‑0; the supporters left with the other one.
Market21 Sep 2026
The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Daniel Leitz may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Sebastian Hölzl dropped after a run of poor form
The one version of being left out a player cannot argue with, and the one he takes worst. Somebody else has been better and the team sheet says so, in public, every week until it changes.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
Léon Pöhls left out for tactical reasons at Grodig
The shape wanted a different profile against this opponent, which is a real football answer and no comfort at all to the man it is about. He did nothing wrong and he did not play.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market7 Sep 2026
Robert Völkl hands in a written request
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what Grodig can pretend not to have heard.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Deadline passes with 20 signed and 0 gone
That is the business done at Grodig until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
A medical, a signature, a shirt held up in front of a sponsor’s board. Grodig have done the hard part with SV Ried, and the part that remains is the part supporters actually see.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
Terms were offered and declined. Whether it was the wages, the role or the town, nobody at Köln is saying, and nobody at Grodig is enjoying the guessing.
Squad7 Sep 2026
The medical room confirms 17 days on the sidelines for Alexander Schwaighofer, and a plan built around him now has to be rebuilt.
Squad7 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 Grodig this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Grodig training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Christoph Ochrana 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
“I have done everything asked of me in training and it has not changed a thing on a Saturday.” The most familiar complaint in football, and one Grodig will have to answer with minutes or with a transfer.
The dugout7 Sep 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 Benjamin Göschl is on it.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad24 Aug 2026
6 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
Match22 Aug 2026
No end in sight to Grodig's wait for a win
4 matches now without a victory, and the excuses have worn thinner than the patience. Somebody at Grodig has to find a result from somewhere.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Words exchanged at Grodig
Vlado Graboviča and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad24 Aug 2026
The most common injury in the game and the most rushed back from. Grodig will quote 14 days and will be careful with it, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
Grodig asked and SV Ried said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match22 Aug 2026
No clean sheets in sight for Grodig
4 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.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alexander Schwaighofer, and the manager let it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Level with 96 minutes on the clock, after an afternoon Grodig had all but put away. Sturm Graz will call it a point earned; the home dressing room will call it two given away, and both of them are right.
Squad24 Aug 2026
No place for Anthony Scully in the new shape
He is not being dropped. There is simply nowhere in the formation Grodig are playing to put a man who does what he does, which is a harder thing to be told than any team sheet.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market17 Aug 2026
Fee agreed, wages agreed, and Grodig waiting with a shirt. Nobody at Mattersburg is pretending otherwise, and the supporters have stopped asking whether and started asking when.
Player ratings17 Aug 2026
Luis Engelns, 19, steals the show — 7.75
Marked 7.75 at 19, in a side that makes no allowances for age. He did not need any, and he looked the least nervous man on the pitch.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $95.0K — a club that wants Tobias Gruber enough to be asked twice.
Match15 Aug 2026
3 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Alexander Posch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$88.0K on the table at Wolfsberger AC. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
$130.0K was the most the club would pay and SV Ried were asking for more. Deals like this are revived in the last week of a window roughly half the time, and everybody involved knows it.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Mattersburg asked and Wolfsberger AC said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Words at Mattersburg training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Konrad Lindner 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.