The hot football topic is off the field as the Liverpool Wagon-Train circles the wagons against the attack by the Boston Red Sox. However this is one battle we want the Indians to win. Still hanging in there the Hicks and Gillett Jr “pardners” have high-tailed it back to Texas to highlight that this is a real cowboy outfit. A restraining order has been granted by another cowboy outfit called a Texas court.

It’s time to wake up “pardners.” The ref blew the whistle on your game a long time ago. Do us all a favour and go and crawl under your Stetson, never to be seen again.

Scotland

We had another round of Euro 2012 Qualifiers and it was Scotland who almost upset the world and European champions Spain. The Scottish fans as ever roared their loyalty for their team in a game which ended 3-2 for Spain. Hailed as coming from “zeroes to heroes” by one Scottish newspaper, the team must take some hope from the game and their prospects of qualification for Euro 2012.

Portsmouth

Another club with a financial headache is Portsmouth who are still looking £900,000 from Inter Milan who have ignored the club’s demands for the money which was part of the transfer deal for Sulley Muntari. The club, who are already in administration, will run out of money next week and player may be asked to defer some of their wages until the situation with Inter Milan is resolved.

Weekend Football.

As ever we have a number of interesting games coming up over the weekend.

My picks are Bolton Wanderers v Stoke City, Manchester United v West Bromwich Albion, and Newcastle v Wigan.

The Manchester game is tantalising in that I am waiting to see if Man Utd will slip up again. However the bookies are not taking the bait. At 10/1 for a WBA away win it could put some cash in your pocket for the night in the pub.

The Bolton Wanderers / Stoke game is too close to call at 11/10 for a home win, 9/4 for a draw and 9/4 for an away win.

My Bet of the Week

On balance I think that I am going to go for the Newcastle / Wigan game. At 4/5 for a home win, 23/10 for a draw and 10/3 for an away win. This is my bet of the week. Don’t mention Chelsea by the way.

Leading goal scorers to date are:

6 Berbatov (Manchester United)

6 Drogba (Chelsea)

6 Malouda (Chelsea)

5 Bent (Sunderland)

4 Elmander (Bolton Wanderers)

4 Tevez (Manchester City)

4 Carroll (Newcastle United)

4 Walcott Arsenal)

4 Kalou (Chelsea)

The Premiership takes a break this weekend and it’s back to the International World Cup fixtures.  With two wins out of two for England, everything looks rosy for them…..until the next bad performance and the fans boo them again.

England v Kazakhstan

A nation expects an easy England win here, but the nation should know by now that it’s never easy when England play the ‘smaller’ teams!!!  There’s no doubt that the confidence will be back in the England team after the win against Croatia, but there seems to be very little point in backing them to win as they are priced at a measly 1.07 on Betfair to beat Kazakhstan. 

Betting tip (loser): The England strikers are expected by the bookies to score goals at Wembley and that’s reflected in the way they’ve been priced.  It might be best to go with either Lampard or Gerrard to get a goal from midfield.  I’ll be backing Gerrard at odds of 2.46 on Betfair to score at anytime.

Scotland v Norway

After Scotland lost to Macedonia in their opening game, they managed to the 3 points against Iceland and they’ll be looking to follow up that victory with a win against Norway.  Norway on the other hand have only played 1 game and only have 1 point.  With Holland in their group it may be a case of which team can finish second after the Dutch.

Betting tip (loser): John Carew has be on great form for Aston Villa and hopefully he will be able to continue this for his country.  Let’s back him at 3.46 to score at anytime, price can be found on Betfair.

UPDATE- Although there were alot of goals in the England match, unfortunately none were scored by Gerrard, making the first losing bet of the weekend.  Well I should get some credit for this game, I did predict that there would be boos at Wembley, I’m sure Lampard will be relievedgutted that his Chelsea teammate Ashley Cole was booed! The Scotland match produced no goals, meaning we lost our second bet of the weekend, hopefully we’ll have better luck with the next round of games.

Belgium v Armenia
Bulgaria v Italy
Denmark v Malta
England v Kazakhstan
Estonia v Spain
Faroe Islands v Austria
Finland v Azerbaijan
Georgia v Cyprus
Germany v Russia
Greece v Moldova
Holland v Iceland
Hungary v Albania
Luxembourg v Israel
Poland v Czech Republic
Romania v France
San Marino v Slovakia
Scotland v Norway
Serbia v Lithuania
Slovenia v Northern Ireland
Sweden v Portugal
Switzerland v Latvia
Turkey v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Ukraine v Croatia
Wales v Liechtenstein

On to the World Cup qualifying fixtures this weekend and after the poor game against the Czechs, England fans can breath a loud sigh of relief and rejoice, that’s right…….Sentanta will be screening the match against Andorra and you won’t be able to watch it on any of the terrestrial channels!!  Thank goodness for that, with Sentanta showing all the away fixtures, England supporters will only have to endure half the stress of watching England.

Betting tips:

Andorra v England- Everyone is thinking that this game will be an easy three points for England, but it’s England!!!  England need a good start and captain John Terry will be a big threat to Andorra on set pieces, back him to score at any time, odds of 5.5 on Betfair.

Slovakia v Northern Ireland- Northern Ireland have come on leaps and bounds over the last few years, beating Euro champions Spain as well as Sweden and Denmark.  But losing games against ‘lesser’  like Latvia away from home meant they failed to qualify for Euro 2008.  Slovakia look to have a pretty solid team and with N. Ireland performing better at home, I will tip Slovakia to win this match at odds of 1.87 on Betfair.  Slovakia score 33 goals in Euro 2008 qualifying, so overs is a good bet as well.

UPDATE- Well the John Terry bet wasn’t a winner, it was his Chelsea team mate Joe Cole who got the goals instead, hopefully anyone who followed only went in small.  But we did have two winning bets this weekend with Slovakia beating N. Ireland and the same match having over 2.5 goals (odds of over 2.0). Hopefully this will be a start towards us getting some winning bets in and making up for losing bets.

Albania 0-0 Sweden
Andorra 0-2 England
Armenia 0-2 Turkey
Austria 3-1 France
Belgium 3-2 Estonia
Croatia 3-0 Kazakhstan
Cyprus 1-2 Italy
FYR Macedonia 1-0 Scotland
Georgia 1-2 Rep of Ireland
Hungary 0-0 Denmark
Israel 2-2 Switzerland
Liechtenstein 0-6 Germany
Luxembourg 0-3 Greece
Malta 0-4 Portugal
Moldova 1-2 Latvia
Montenegro 2-2 Bulgaria
Norway 2-2 Iceland
Poland 1-1 Slovenia
Romania 0-3 Lithuania
Serbia 2-0 Faroe Islands
Slovakia 2-1 Northern Ireland
Spain 1-0 Bosnia-Herzegovina
Ukraine 1-0 Belarus
Wales 1-0 Azerbaijan