It was interesting (if expensive) watching Palace/Leicester last night. Two players from Fulham's early surge on show. Matt Lawrence was a young full-back who had a great game the night we went to White Hart Lane and were dumped out the cup 4-1, strangely the first vestiges of a team going somewhere. Harry Bayles (as he was known) was of the type that not only did the crowd not have a clue as to what he may do next, but neither did he. Judging by his winner last night that remains the case!
Good to see them thriving at their level. There was an amazing turnover of players over the 6 years or so we went from bottom of the league to premiership. So many of those from the early days seem to have drifted out of the game altogether.
Mind you at one stage we had Van Der Saar, Maik Taylor and Hannehman as our goalkeeping roster. Considering they are now all first choices at other Premiership clubs that was some stockpiling!
Anyway, on with the show.
The novice chases today are decidedly iffy. Robin De Sherwood looked one to take on but with only an Emma Lavelle runner needing one more run for a handicap looking credible opposition, I'll sit that one out. At Folkestone Iconoclast could improve but is up against a Henderson mare off a long break and he's been bending me over with those too often of late.
Tonight's domestic football isn't straightforward either. I have four teams backable on ratings, but can see exactly why the bookies have them at the tempting prices they do. Not least they all have trouble scoring at home. I think I'll cover them in a 'just in case' accumulator and forget them – for what it's worth the teams are Sheff Utd, Crewe, Bradford and Grimsby, and you can get over 30/1 on betfair.
So we're left with the African Nations cup. Ivory Coast would normally be something like 4/6 to beat Mali, but it's conspiracy time again and fears of a fixed draw have once again skewed the market. “Drogba's wife is Malinese”; “Economic partnerships and close neighbours” etc. Given your average African nation makes Italy look corruption-free you would be mad not to worry. On the other hand the £500 Challenge has profited handsomely from ignoring such conspiracy theories this year. I'll wade in and shrug stoically when the pass the ball amongst themselves for the last 80 minutes! It's perfectly possible to get 0-0 on your side but I'll be greedy.
£500 Challenge
Ivory Coast £20 win at 6/4+
God I love a conspiracy theory...
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