Stockport 0-4 Torquay

This FA Cup game at Edgeley Park had been called off twice already this season due to the poor state of the pitch. For that reason this second round tie was played at Macclesfield Town's own Moss Rose stadium. It benefited Torquay more than Stockport County. But the "home" side are in League One whereas Torquay only got promoted into the Football League after a play off win over Cambridge last season at Wembley.

Stockport were in miserable form before this game with their last defeat coming at home to Charlton on Saturday. They had only scored nine goals at Edgeley Park all season, which is equal to Wycombe Wanderers who are also struggling in League One. But as its the cup, at Ladbrokes they were 11/10 favourites to win the tie and face Brighton in the third round.

Torquay were expected to struggle in League Two, and they have no disappointed the critics so far this season. They lie 19th in the league but their away form is half decent. Prior to losing 4-2 against Accrington Stanley in their last away game, they had drawn away from home four times in succession starting with Notts County, Lincoln City, Shrewsbury and Port Vale. Their last game against Darlington at the weekend saw them rack up five goals to condemn their opposition to further misery at the bottom of the league. Before this FA Cup tie against Stockport, they were 15/8 to win the game.


A fiver was worth putting on Stockport to win this game and use it as a confidence boost to earn back some form. However, Torquay's Elliot Benyon had other ideas as he scored three goals against the struggling League One side with Scott Redell sandwiching one of his own in between Benyon's first and second goal to send Stockport crashing out of the cup in desperate need of some form.

Manchester United 3-0 Wolverhampton

After United's loss to Aston Villa at the weekend, this game at Old Trafford should have been the easiest game to call all season. Wolves had defeated Spurs on Saturday but the difference in class between the two sides is enormous.

Man Utd never looked like losing to Mick McCarthy's patched up Wolves team despite United not being on top of their game. While it may have been poor odds, it was the only result that was ever going to occur, and I don't blame William Hill to only advertise at 1/8 for a United win. For the record, a Wolves win would have given you 12/1 at the same bookmakers.

It took Man Utd half an hour before scoring the first goal, a penalty from Wayne Rooney after Wolves defender Ronald Zuber fouled Nemanja Vidic in the penalty area challenging for Darron Gibson's corner kick. Vidic doubled United's lead 13 minutes later just before half time. Antonio Valencia secured the three points for the home team from a half volley from Dimitar Berbatov sending Wolves back into the relegation zone level on points with Bolton who despite beating West Ham 3-1 on the same night, have a game in hand over their relegation rivals.

Picture of Wayne Rooney by Paolo Camera @ www.flickr.com

Middlesbrough V Cardiff & Liverpool V Arsenal

This is a quick summary of results that was placed on the two televised games yesterday between Middlesbrough and Cardiff as well as Liverpool V Arsenal. The preview can be seen here on this blog.

Cardiff City, as expected, defeated Middlesbrough 1-0 at the Riverside Stadium thanks to a Chris Burke free kick after 61 minutes of play in the Championship game.

Burke scored a crazy goal that for some reason was left by the Middlesbrough goalkeeper, Brad Jones and the rest of his defense to sail into the net ten yards from the touchline. The result leaves the former Premiership side mid table in 11th place, while the boys from Wales stay in the play off spot in 3rd place, two points from West Brom who occupy the final automatic promotion spot behind leaders Newcastle.

Liverpool meanwhile remain in poor form after a 2-1 loss to Arsenal at Anfield. The prediction of Liverpool stepping up to perform against the big boys of the Premier League proved to be incorrect as they were confidently beaten confidently thanks to an own goal from Glen Johnson and Arsenal's £15 million forward Andrey Arshavin (I think it would be cheaper to get a Brazilian than my Arshavin).

Dirk Kuyt scored an earlier goal for Liverpool until Johnson's error put Arsenal back in the game and Arshavin found a crack in the Liverpool defence to score the winner.

Picture, Ronnie MacDonald @ www.flickr.com

Matchday preview - 13/12/09

A short preview of Middlesbrough V Cardiff and Liverpool V Arsenal.

Another accumulator - 12/12/09

I'm a bit pissed off.

If you haven't guessed by the first sentence of this post, I lost the accumulator this weekend from Coral. In fact, in my frustration I threw away the original betting slip and it is now lying somewhere in many pieces on Leek Road in Stoke-on-Trent. The picture to the left is a copy of the coupon I picked up afterwards and am using it to show you nice people what an idiot I am. Click on the image to enlarge it.

It was a day of unusual results all round, and the type of day that comes so rare in a season in that the script of many games were thrown out of the window. Manchester United lost at home to Aston Villa, although thankfully I didn't put that game down on my accumulator. I did however decide to put Spurs down to beat Wolves. Big mistake. I also put high flyers Bournemouth to beat 10th place Morecambe at Christie Park. Despite having Bournemouth with a very good away record this season, that was again a big mistake as the Lancashire team ran out 5-0 winners.

Anyway onto my idiotic reasons for choosing the winners and losers as I did.

Spurs V Wolves should have been a no ridiculously easy to predict. Wolves away from home shouldn't have got anywhere near Tottenham at White Hart Lane. They've only won three games in the league all season and lost four away. Spurs on the other hand, were third in the league before the weekend with a home record that saw the likes of Liverpool being defeated. A 2-2 slip up last week at Goodison Park should have been just that, a slip up. From all accounts Spurs were terrible and Kevin Doyle secured the win for Wolves with a fine goal in the first half.

Leicester City had been struggling of late. They were defeated 5-1 at Bramhall Lane last week and lost at home during midweek to Bristol City. But Sheffield Wednesday were no problem, and it seems Leicester took their attacking threat with a pinch of 'ready salted' and cut through their defence like a mouldy potato. Steve Howard's goal set the home team straight while Andy King scored two more to secure a 3-0 win which was very well predicted.

That bloke from the Aviva advert must be wondering why he got his car insurance at all this season. Plymouth have been just as bad at Home Park as they have been on the road. A round trip to Preston North End is approximately 604 miles for Argyle fans, and it was another trip wasted as they lost 2-0 at Deepdale. PNE were mid table beforehand, but Plymouth's poor season is making it clear they are a gold mine if you bet against them this season.

Leeds and Brentford drew in another game that should have seen the visitors extend their lead at the top of League One. Brentford had won the same number of games at home as they had drawn, so in that sense its not surprising that the scores ended 0-0. But for Leeds that is the third time all season they have dropped points away from Elland Road. I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get this score right, but I suppose very few teams have read the script today.

I've already mentioned the Morecambe V Bournemouth game, and I don't think I need to go over it again as this is one of two results that have really pissed me off today. Bournemouth lost 5-0 as you know thanks to goals from Stuart Drummond, Craig Stanley, Laurence Wilson, Phil Jevons from a penalty and Mark Duffy.

Finally Rangers did read the script in the Scottish Premier League. They defeated St Johnstone comfortably at Ibrox 3-0 and are only two points behind Celtic with a game in hand. Kris Boyd scored two goals in the first 27 minutes while Nacho Novo sealed an easy win after 51 minutes. Another correct prediction, but having already got three matches wrong I still win sweet FA.

Brighton V Colchester

On paper there was only going to be one winner. Brighton, at home, had won only two games and lost seven drawing one. Colchester were 4th, but it was mainly due to a good home record they they remain in that play off spot, where they had won eight at the Weston Homes Community Stadium.Their away record looked a little inconsistent. Two wins, five draws and three losses had been chalked up so far before this game, so the final result was either going to be a draw or Colchester win.

Colchester won 2-1 thanks to goals from Philip Ifil and Anthony Wordsworth very early on in the 9th and 14th minute respectively, while Brighton replied with a Gary Dicker header three minutes before half time.

The match statistics would no doubt frustrate Brighton Manager, Gus Poyet. Whilst Colchester had 54% of the possession, Brighton had more shots on goal, won ten corners and conceded fewer fouls. On the face of it, it looked like Brighton couldn't complete enough chances and Colchester's poor travelling form was reflected in their performance.

However, it was good news for me as my £10 bet on Colchester to win at 7/5 at Coral returned £24 making a £14 profit.

Match report at www.bbc.co.uk/football

Picture of Gus Poyet by Bob Flood @ www.flickr.com

The accumulator video: 20-23/11/2009

Below is my video telling the story of my accumulator bet placed on 20th November 2009. It shows the reasons and outcomes of the weekends accumulator picks including Chelsea hosting Wolverhampton and West Bromwich Albion at home to Bristol City.

Flashback - Everyone laughed at me, until before the final kick of the game.

Everyone has an opinion at a rugby league match. Every man, woman and child thinks they can coach England to a test series win against Australia, something that hasn't been done in 37 years. Every Warrington fan thinks they can coach their side to Super League glory. And everyone thinks there is no chance of any match ending in a draw. And they're right. Which is why on 29th June 2008 I placed £2 for Hull FC V Warrington to end in a draw after 80 minutes. At 16/1 it would return £32 providing enough money for a match ticket for the Huddersfield away game three weeks later (which turned out to be nerve wrecking as we only won 19-18). I was ridiculed right until kick off, with laughter coming from people I had never even met. I had also put £3 on Danny Tickle to be the first try scorer at 20/1.

But there was a very simple reason for betting on an unlikely draw. Both teams were going through a rough patch of form. Warrington had won two out of their previous five games, including a 52-14 thrashing in the south of France the week before. Morale between the fans and players was at a season low after an elderly woman had abused the team before the flight back to Manchester in Perpignan airport. Nonetheless, enough fans travelled to Hull to witness one of the most thrilling games we'd seen all season. Hull meanwhile, had only won one game in five and were having their worst season since the club's merger with Gateshead Thunder at the end of the 1999 season. Ladbrokes (who had occupied the stadium's betting stands since Hull City started to win games in the Football League) couldn't really separate the two teams, giving Hull FC a two point start on the handicap coupon.

The match started well... for Hull. Shaun Berrigan dived in close to the touchline ruling out my bet for first try scorer. Warrington's fast paced winger, Kevin Penny, scored during one of our few attacking opportunities all half while Berrigan scored his second try of the day soon after. Paul Rauhihi was sin-binned seconds before the half time interval ending a dismal half for James Lowes side being 12-6 down. While things looked grim, mathematically we weren't out of the running yet. The only thing putting doubt into our minds was our awful performance.

Lee Briers opened the scoring early on in the second half next to the posts to level the scores 12 all. Jodie Broughton on-loan from Leeds gave Hull another four point lead until Penny scored his second after Gareth Carvell, playing against his future club, knocked on and the speedy winger took advantage. After Chris Hicks knocked over a penalty making up for his earlier conversion failure, Kirk Yeaman looked to have won things for Hull giving the hosts a 22-18 lead with five minutes remaining.

But then Warrington did something their fans haven't in a while. They refused to give up. In the final minute Matt King burst through the inexperienced partnership of Tom Briscoe and Broughton to level the scores 22 points a-piece. Then the full time hooter blew. But Warrington still had to take the conversion five metres from touch.

My bet of £32 looked dead certain to come through, as Hicks had been a little inconsistent from the sidelines all season. For the next sixty seconds I was sitting on the fence in a no-lose situation. I was back in that catch twenty-two situation when betting against my own team. Miss the conversion and I'm in the money. Score the goal and I, with a few hundred others, celebrate one of the finest Warrington fight backs seen in recent years. From my vantage point, the ball would come directly towards me if the attempt was successful. In fact, I'm pretty sure Hicks used me as a target to hit the ball with. It was a beautiful kick that split the posts in two, and as the touch-judges raised their flags to signal a goal, all though of 'what might have been' was erased as we celebrated a heart stopping victory.

On the coach journey back home, I was further ridiculed. Although I did put forward the argument that the scores were level directly after the final hooter. But I threw my betting slip away. I doubt Ladbrokes would let me redeem my bet under the circumstances.

Picture taken by thepurpleempire at www.flickr.com
 Match report seen at www.sportinglife.com