Marked for Derick Poloni
From our football correspondent
Steady
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Successful dribbles: 29. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Match12 Dec 2026
10 unbeaten for Farense
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 10 matches without defeat is a foundation Farense did not have in the autumn.
Market14 Dec 2026
The general version of this complaint is that a player wants more. The specific version names the thing: he wants to walk out under floodlights against clubs from other countries, and he has stopped pretending otherwise.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words exchanged at Farense
Jordan Holsgrove 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.
Player ratings14 Dec 2026
Luan ran the middle of the pitch — 7.15
He won it back and then made something of it, which is two jobs and the reason the scoreline looks the way it does. 12 combined actions and a mark of 7.15, and not one of them will make a highlights package.
The terraces14 Dec 2026
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 22-year-old it feels ownership of. Joseph Nduquidi 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.
Squad14 Dec 2026
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Luan 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 ratings14 Dec 2026
7.35, and no serious argument from anybody who was there. Farense had eleven men on the pitch and one of them decided how it went.
The dugout14 Dec 2026
Somebody else is better right now than Gabriel Barbosa
The team sheet says it in public every week until it changes. The only version of being dropped a footballer cannot argue with, and the one he takes hardest.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match14 Nov 2026
6 unbeaten for Farense
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Farense did not have in the autumn.
Match14 Nov 2026
Nobody wins at Farense
9 home matches unbeaten. Visiting sides arrive already talking about the atmosphere, which is usually the sign that they have half-lost before kickoff.
Squad16 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 Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Nov 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Iago Oliveira and Farense agree another 4 years.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Gonçalo Silva, and the manager let it.
Match14 Nov 2026
A 1‑1 draw with Maritimo leaves the dressing room somewhere between relief and regret.
Squad16 Nov 2026
A row about effort at Farense
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and João Gastão was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
The dugout16 Nov 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.” Rui Nascimento chose the glass-half-full version of 1‑1; the supporters left with the other one.
The dugout16 Nov 2026
Somebody else has been better, the manager has said so with a team sheet, and there is no argument to be had. He will get the shirt back the only way it can be got back.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Match3 Oct 2026
Whatever happens, Farense do not lose
8 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.
Squad5 Oct 2026
20 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Words exchanged at Farense
Rúben Fernandes 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.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Marked 7.44 on an afternoon he ran from the first whistle to the last. Whatever else went wrong, Farense had the best player on the pitch.
Boardroom5 Oct 2026
87% of the income goes out in wages at Farense
Every club in football pays most of what it earns to its players. Paying nearly all of it is a different arrangement, and it has ended the same way every time somebody has tried it.
Squad5 Oct 2026
Alex Pinto named in the team of the month
A month is long enough that nobody gets in by accident. Alex Pinto is in the division's best eleven for it, which is a quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
Player ratings5 Oct 2026
Successful dribbles: 14. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.
Squad5 Oct 2026
It will be explained as a change for the team and it may even be one. Nobody who has worn one believes that, and neither does the man who has just had it taken away.
The dugout5 Oct 2026
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Rui Nascimento after the 0‑0 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Triumph
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Successful dribbles: 28. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Player ratings21 Sep 2026
Marco Matias, 37, rolls back the years — 8.20
There is an age at which every good afternoon gets described as a throwback, which is unfair and also accurate. 8.20 at 37, and nobody on the pitch was better.
Squad21 Sep 2026
A muscle injury sidelines Marco Matias for 16 days
Nobody makes a documentary about a hamstring and everybody in the game fears one. Farense will be careful with the return date, because the second one is always worse than the first.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Diego Dorregaray 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.
Match19 Sep 2026
6 unbeaten for Farense
Hard to beat is not the same as winning, but 6 matches without defeat is a foundation Farense did not have in the autumn.
Transfer targets21 Sep 2026
Farense asked and Oliveirense said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Match19 Sep 2026
Three points for Farense, 1‑0 the final word against Chaves in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Squad21 Sep 2026
Samuel Santos 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.
The dugout21 Sep 2026
The manager makes an example of Joseph Nduquidi
“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.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Market7 Sep 2026
Sporting CP come back empty-handed
The bid was some way short and Farense did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market7 Sep 2026
“It was not right for me. I am not going to explain why to anybody except the people I owe an explanation to.” A deal agreed between two clubs, and a player who declined to be part of it.
Market7 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 Farense, and it is not being withdrawn.
Boardroom7 Sep 2026
Window shuts: 22 in, 27 out at Farense
The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 22 arrived, 27 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.
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 Farense this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Transfer targets7 Sep 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
The dugout7 Sep 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Diego Dorregaray, and the manager let it.
Squad7 Sep 2026
Words at Farense training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Samuel Santos 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
Somebody has moved past him. It is not a dropping and it is worse than one, because a dropping is about a Saturday and this is about where he stands.