Real Madrid cost me again!

As I'm sure you can tell from the blog title, I didn't have the greatest weekends gambling this week, although in hindsight it could have been a lot worse, so maybe it was a good weekend after all.

After losing a few quid conducting a draw laying, with cover, experiment on the Man Utd V Chelsea game, I got into the Saturday afternoon fixtures.

Got stuck into Arsenal after half an hour, as they were still 0-0. Was on over 2.5 goals, then got on over 1.5 as cover and also laid 0-0 in the last 10 mins to cover the lot. As you well know Nicklas Bendtner scored a 90+ mins goal, which got me off the hook, so was very releaved.

Then, while still breathing a sigh of relief I heard Phil Thompson shouting that Arsenal had a breakaway attack and that Samir Nasri had blown a great chance, a great chance that is, for my over 1.5 goals bet to come in and turn it into a great winner.

Anyway, after that I needed a late goal to get me off the hook in the Cardiff V Swansea match as well, so was lucky in both those games.

Ended Saturday in profit after backing Barcelona on 'Any Unquoted Score' on Betfair, layed off at 3-0, and as is usually the case when you go by the book, the 4th goal went in about 5 minutes later.

Got it totally wrong on Real Madrid on Sunday, my big loss of the weekend. Went in big on 'Any Unqoted', then had cover on 'Over 2.5 goals'. Was looking good when Higuain made it 2-0 in 76th minute.

Just needed one more quick goal for my cover bet to come in, and to also hopefully be able to try and cover, some, if not all of my 'Any Unquoted' bet. Guti hit the bar and then Ronaldo missed a sitter from 5 yards out, I wasn't impressed.

Cost me about £20, but it was probably some justice for all my lucky breaks on Saturday's games. Clawed back a fiver on the Athletic Madrid V Deportivo game with 'over 2.5' goals bet, and stood to win a few more quid if Athletic had got the 4th, as had 'Any Unqouted', before laying it off for a risk free bet.

All in all, it could have been better, but it could also have been a lot worse. Very frustrating though. One thing I did get right this weekend though, was I stayed well away from Scottish football, although I did lose on Rangers on Tuesday night.

Whilst on Twitter on Saturday, I noticed that 'Boatrace' and 'Clare Balding' where in the trending topics, I couldn't help but think that this was quite ironic, given Balding's boatrace. Wonder if she might expose this years winning Grand National jockey to any personal defects that he might have? We shall have to wait and see on that front.

Nearly for Madrid (and me)

Mixed weekend on the betting front this week, did mainly 'Any Unquoted Score' on Betfair, again with limited success.

Was going to do either Chelsea or Arsenal for the Saturday 3pm bet, went with Arsenal as thought Birmingham might crumble a bit in 2nd half, and Chelsea scored after 15 mins so there was no value in the price (or so I wrongly thought). Just about my luck.

Won a few pound on Man Utd putting 4 past Bolton, lost on some correct score bets on Saturday afternoon's Premier League games, also lost on Barcelona for 'Any Unquoted' and lost on the correct score with Zaragoza V Valencia.

Did get my money back on Arsenal game, as laid the 0-1 to cover my bets, about 5 minutes before Almunia set up Kevin Phillips injury time equaliser. Wasn't too impressed though as did Arsenal 2-0 and 2-1 in-running and apparently Nasri missed a sitter to make it 2-0 just before Phillips' goal.

Laid Villareal at HT against Sevilla and was well happy when some donkey missed a sitter 5 mins into 2nd half for Sevilla, could have been different if he'd scored, so lost there as well. Also did Madrid on Any Unquoted and laid off my loses for a free bet, wasn't happy with 3-2 result though. Again, another close call.

All-in all about a tenner down which isn't a disaster (only using a small betting bank). The Man Utd win basically subsidised my weekends gambling.

Think I'm going to stick with backing the 'Any Unquoted Scores' for a while and see how it goes, it's more a matter of timing the bet properly. No point backing the likes of Madrid, Man Utd, Chelsea or Barca at the start, as sometimes the price is as low as 5/2 to 3/1, which is ridiculous.

Generally try to wait til the half hour mark and hope it's still 0-0. Or if theres an early goal wait for the hour mark and if only still 1-0, then get on. Not sure if it a sustainable long term bet, but going to give it a run for rest of the season, haven't bottomed out my account on it yet!

What about Arsene Wenger saying to a journo "Leave me alone with that, for fuck's sake," because the hack was trying to provoke him into saying Birmingham had kicked lumps out of his side. Makes a change, he is usually only too happy to point the finger at the opposition.

Bloody Ibrahimovic!

After backing Barcelona to score 4 goals (any unquoted score) on Betfair, I was subjected to a period of pulling my hair out at the sight of this €60 Million so-called goal scorer missing chance after chance against Real Zaragoza on Sunday night, including an unbelievable open goal.

Thank God for Lionel Messi, who almost single handedly won me my bet with a hat-trick and winning a penalty. With Zaragoza coming back to 2-3 in the last couple of minutes though the game was still alive, for this reason you can imagine my horror at the sight of Zlatan Ibrahimovic being given the ball to take the 90th minute penalty won by Messi.

Thankfully he scored but not without giving me another stress attack, I couldn't believe they let him take it after the night he had. I could understand him taking it if Barca had a 3-0 lead, but this was only 3-2. Phew.

Also won a couple of quid laying Leicester at half time when they were 2-0 up against the mighty Coventry City. 1/20 they were on Betfair, that was miles too short for me. Lost on Chelsea to win 2-1 and Man Utd to win 3-1 or 3-2.

Also lost a couple of pounds (in-running) on over 2.5 goals in the Rangers V St Mirren match, honestly, why do I bet on Scottish football, this was a joke of a match. 11 men against 9, and the 11 could hardly manage a shot at goal. No wonder Robbie Keane is already saying he is coming back to Spurs.

Thought the quote of the weekend was Lawrence Dallaglio saying the words "quick ball" and "England" in the same sentence when describing Ben Foden's try in Paris on Saturday night. Thats like saying "Portsmouth" and "3 points" or "Ronaldo" and "stayed on his feet under a challenge in the penalty area" in the same sentence.

At least we can blame the rain for using the kicking game this time, although I did think it was far from the worst performance I've seen from England lately. Bit late though!