The lads look ahead to a weekend of sporting action that ends with QPR's eagerly anticipated home game with Newcastle on Monday night.
Andy is turning into a betting equivalent of Leyton Orient – following up a promising season last year with a disastrous start to this. A third blank week in a row for the Wigan column was saved only slightly by refunds to the tune of £20. He's down £130 overall. Another blank week for Brian as well means he is £92.19 in the red. Early days yet though, we tell ourselves.
Look, stick with me here. I can change, I promise. Just give me another chance. I know we’re in a bit of a rut at the moment, but think of the good times, like last season with the four draws on the one Sunday afternoon? That was good and profitable, wasn't it?
Another blank week for me last week, three on the spin, but at least this was a cheap week for me - the strike action in Serie A meant that my accumulator was void, and DJ Campbell not making the squad voided that bet as well. The annoying thing about it all is that I had back to back accumulators come in over the international week - each of them over three figures too.
So this week is the Monday night football match at home against Newcastle, the first home game of the Tony Fernandes era, and the first game with our signings that would have sounded ridiculous about 2 weeks ago, including Joey Barton’s debut, against his old club Newcastle, and the match is going to be refereed by Phil Dowd as well. The term ‘powder keg’ pretty much nails it. The trouble I’ve got here is that all three results look eminently possibly, and the odds reflect this as well- QPR are favourites, but not by much. Instead of going for a straight match odds bet, I might take a look at a few stats based bets instead, starting with a red card to be shown in the match. As it's the Monday night game the markets are not fully developed, so I'm going to wait before getting the best possible odds. I’m also going to look for 8 booking points or more, and sticking with the disciplinary theme, I’m going to go for a penalty awarded. You watch Dowd fail to book a single person.
Elsewhere, it’s the start of the Rugby Union World Cup this weekend, which I’m reliably informed is the proper version of Rugby . I’m looking forward to watching the matches in the pub with Clive before the football in the coming weeks. (Don't push your luck – ed) England are as high as 18/1 for the tournament, which are pretty long odds considering we’ve actually got a pretty good squad, and unlike the football team, we actually rise to the big occasions. I’m not silly enough to back us though, although a ‘back to lay’ bet might be worthwhile if we get to the semi-finals, which we should. New Zealand are odds on favourites to win, which is frankly ridiculous because they’ll choke, they always do. At a price of 4/6 on with some bookmakers, that’s an instant lay for me, so I’m laying them for a liability of £15, with a potential return of £37.50 when they inevitably fail to win. Elsewhere, I’m going to back the big four of England , Australia , New Zealand and South Africa all to win their respective groups, available at around 11/8 with most bookmakers.
Finally, my accumulator for the week, and I’m going to win this one, I can feel it. i'm going for a sixfold of Bayern Munich, Celtic, Man City , Barcelona , Not Bolton, Not Swansea. not particularly adventurous, and comes in just under 4/1, but hopefully enough to arrest this alarming slide!
For the Weekend:
QPR vs. Newcastle - over 8 booking points - £5 @ TBA
QPR vs. Newcastle - Red Card - £5 @ TBA
QPR vs. Newcastle - Penalty Awarded - £5 @ TBA
Sixfold accumulator - Bayern Munich, Celtic, Man City , Barcelona , Not Bolton, Not Swansea. £10 @ 3.78 (Betfair)
Rugby World Cup:
New Zealand to not win - £15 @ 6/4 (Various)
The Big 4 to all win their group - £10 @ 11/8 (Various)
Due to work commitments, promising to finish the decorating and a wedding to attend this is a short column this week. The egg chasing World Cup has started and the hot favourites are New Zealand who have home advantage and the nation behind them after the recent events. But they have failed time after time at the World Cup so I will plump for the loveable Aussies at 7/2. Have a sneaky £5 on James O'Connor to be top tournament try scorer at 16/1 as I have been informed he could play against the lesser nations and fill his boots.
On the R's front the question we are all asking is what price Joey Barton to get a red card?? I should be lumping on this as opposed to Joey lumping one of the Newcastle players. I think we can beat the Geordies and will have a £5 on 2-1 and the same on Young Joseph to get the first goal.
Top it off with a horse race lucky 15 and the normal footie bet. Be Lucky.
For the weekend:
£5 QPR to win 2-1
£5 Barton to score first
£15 Australia to win Rugby World Cup 7/2
£5 O'Connor top tryscorer 16/1
£1 trebles and a £1acca
Leicester 11/10
Sheff Utd 13/10
Wimbeldon 2/1
Crawley 6/5
£1 Lucky 15
3.10 Doncaster Sea Moon
2.20 Goodwood French Navy
2.35 Doncaster Dungannon
3.25 Goodwood Son of the Cat