Over Cooked

Two words to be optimistic of Englands chances in the summer… Wayne Rooney. Rooney is the best form of his life right now, banging in 4 goals last weekend against Hull and then scoring the winner in seml final last night against rivals Man City (the second time this season City have been undone at Old Trafford in stoppage time). Man City’s chief executive Garry Cook had made a bold statement recently about City’s ambition to be in the biggest club in the world, Fergie must have been rubbing his hands at the timing of Cooks statement. I can’t help but feel that Cook wont be at City for too long, he reminds me of a naive Peter Kenyon and some of the comments he has been making have made me cringe.

West Ham were unlucky not to beat Portsmouth this week, which was disappointing to say the least as I was on course for a correct 1-0 result and away win until Pompey equalized with 14 minutes left. Still onwards and upwards, tonights see the semi finals of the African Nations cup and the bet for me tonight is Ghana to qualify at the expense of Nigeria. God knows how Nigeria have got so far playing the negative football they do, Yakubu is bad enough when played upfront with a partner but playing as a lone striker!? (cue Yakubu hat trick) On the other hand Ghana have a great young team and I expect them to have too much for Nigeria.

Good Luck All.

What If?

I was shocked to see that Algeria had beaten tournament favorites Ivory Coast in the African Nations Cup, this result will have been a major positive for England as it highlights the danger of Algeria. Im sure Fabio Capello would have been watching this game closely and would have learnt a lot from it.

It’s been a case of “what if?” for me lately; I was looking at backing Martin Kaymer for the Golf and Ghana outright for the ACON before a ball was kicked (I was so impressed by the Ghana U20’s in the recent U20’s World Cup) but I backed neither. I think im too impatient for these kinds of bets, waiting 4 days for the golf to finish and a few weeks for the Ghana bet – I prefer to see an outcome the same day I need to learn to trust my instinct and apply more patience. I know 4 days isn’t a lot but its much longer than a 6f race at Kempton!
I like the look of West Ham to beat Portsmouth tomorrow, Portsmouth are in a mess and struggling to find a side to put together. I read they may only name 3 subs! I somehow doubt that but this news coupled with West Hams recent performance at Villa Park and the new takeover I expect more positive results for the hammers. Back West Ham 1-0 correct score at 9.4 and West Ham to win at a stonking 3.10 both on Betfair.

Its all about timing...

It was one bet I didnt mind losing when backing both teams to score in the Liverpool V Spurs game on wednesday night! Liverpool played with passion and determination something the vistors lacked, Spurs were very average and inparticular Gareth Bale had a poor game. I am still waiting for Bale to actually produce something since his move to Tottenham a few years back, a very over rated player in my opinion - the fact Carragher beat him for pace summed it all up for Spurs.

I have been playing alot in the goals market recently with a great deal of success, I believe that these markets suit my style of inplay betting. I can read a match much better than I intially thought after predicting goals in the second half of the Mallorca Getafe cup game on wednesday (0-0 at HT 1-2 at FT) I lumped on over 1.5 and a bit 2.5 goals at half time and was duly rewarded with 3 second half goals, odds of 2.58 of over 1.5 was very generous and duly greened up after the first goal when odds dropped to 1.40.

And again in the Cameroon game last night, with the score at 0-1 to Tunisia I was expecting Cameroon to come out all guns balzing in a bid to qualify for the knockout stages. Both teams needed a positive result to qualify so end to end action was on the cards so a nice bet at 2.52 on over 2.5 goals at HT paid off when the the final score was 2-2. Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing when looking back on these bets but with the right research it makes these inplay markets a good source of winners, even 1 goal allows an opportunity to trade.

On a seperate note what application or gadget would anyone advise to upload screenshots onto blogspot?

Third Time Unlucky

Well the 1 goal challenge lasted a grand total of 3 games before Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso had ruined the dream of becoming a millionaire through backing 1 goal or more. Although I lost 20 quid it was my pride that was more dented by only managing two winning bets before hitting a nil nil. With hindsight I should have given more thought to where the goals where going to come from, Burkina Faso were always gonna play for a 0-0, keep it tight and try a nick it late on and the emphasis was on Ivory Coast to break down their African counterparts.

No problem, I thought. Didier Drogba and co should bash a hatful past them but it wasn’t to be and the challenge ended over a miserable 3 games. Still lesson learnt and im going to stay away from International games, cannot be trusted as more often than not the minnows will put in a resolute performance and busting many banks in the process.

It’s not all boring 0-0’s in the African Nations Cup as hosts Angola drew 4-4 with Mali in an amazing first game, Angola were 4-0 up with 78 minutes with the draw at odds of 1000 on Betfair – cue Mali comeback.

I will be back with the 1goal challenge, after my wounds have healed.