0‑3 against Spartak Trnava, and no complaints that would survive the replay. The manager spoke about character afterwards; the terraces used shorter words.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Spartak Myjava this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Tiago Ilori 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 run now stands at 8, and the questions being asked around Spartak Myjava are no longer polite ones.
Squad14 Sep 2026
Words at Spartak Myjava training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Tomas Bero 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.
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Denis Kubica, and the manager let it.
Squad14 Sep 2026
The manager has not finished forgetting Tiago Ilori's mistake
Publicly it is behind everybody. It is not behind the man who picks the team, and the only place that shows is a team sheet. He will get another chance; he will get it in a match that matters less.
He is 14, and nobody at Spartak Myjava signed him for this season. Deals like this are judged in four years, by people who may not still be in the building.
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.
Boards get told what they have done wrong for years and hear nothing on the days they get it right. This is one of those days: Tomas Bero from FK Senica for $240.0K, and a ticket office having a very good morning.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Tomas Bero 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.
Beaten 0‑1, and beaten fairly. The manager kept his words short afterwards, which was probably wise.
Squad7 Sep 2026
10 new faces, and Spartak Myjava are still learning each other
A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.
There is a version of every career where the player ends up somewhere he chose rather than somewhere that chose him. Stephen Duke-McKenna is living that version at Spartak Myjava, and it tends to show in the first month.
6 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.
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.
It needed Stephen Duke-McKenna to find the net to bring anything home at all: 1‑1 against MFK Skalica, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at Spartak Myjava, and both men came out saying it was fine.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” George Thomson and Harrogate Town agree another 1 years.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Harrogate Town this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Words at Harrogate Town training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Anthony O'Connor 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.