Balls to Fiend (The Football Thread) (Read 1357813 times)

tomtom · August 03, 2011, 10:26:33 am

Away games are great 3T, in many ways better than home.. fans care more, tighter atmosphere greater togetherness etc..

Grubes · August 03, 2011, 10:29:08 am

Have to agree with TomTom away days are generally better than home ones.

I have been to keepmoat twice now.
The first time was the first ever game at the stadium. Me and my mates got there early and parked in a companies car park about ½a mile from the ground cost about £3. We went to reception and borrowed a football for a £5 deposit and had a kick about behind the away end in some astroturf pitches. I remember me mates bird getting asked if she would like some donny meat. I remember the pies were pretty good and the beer was not too expensive.
The second time parked in the next carpark of for about £4 or 5 got a pie but they had been caught serving underage kids and had there liquer license revoked .. bet that cost em a bit!

Its a nice ground and far enough away from the centre to get away quick.

Jaspersharpe · August 03, 2011, 10:34:57 am

3T - West Ham will be very well organised, play "percentage football" and probably get promoted. You need to as well as the financial consequences of not going straight back up would be dire.

Looking forward to seeing what @The Big_Sam has to say this season!

Re the cost table, I liked this tweet from a Brighton fan "Not a test of value for money just a race to the bottom table. Amex worth it for what it offers compared to some Champ' dumps." Quite.

nai · August 03, 2011, 01:05:14 pm

Just skimmed my RP form guide, lots of pundits tipping Brighton for promotion and CMS for the golden boot as best value Championship bets.

Jaspersharpe · August 03, 2011, 02:34:46 pm

Yes, I wish they'd stop it.

Re the BBC's cost of attendance thing. It turns out that it is all total bollocks:

http://www.twohundredpercent.net/?p=14190

Quote

And here lies the discrepancy which causes the survey to be almost useless – the clubs have been asked for their lowest matchday prices..... However, while some clubs have used a single specific game that is cheaper than their regular price (and often deals that are in other competitions), some clubs have given their lowest regular League price despite having better offers elsewhere. The survey itself has been presented as “The Price of Football” without the caveat that these are often individual offers.

Quote

All of which means that instead of eleven Football Clubs that offer football for under £20, only one actually manages it on anything remotely resembling a regular basis, and that is Macclesfield Town – and the Silkmen are not even one of the eleven claimed by the survey.

tomtom · August 03, 2011, 05:53:15 pm

Quote from: nai on August 03, 2011, 01:05:14 pm

Just skimmed my RP form guide, lots of pundits tipping Brighton for promotion and CMS for the golden boot as best value Championship bets.

I thought Hull at 7's and 8's for promotion was a reasonable bet..

nai · August 03, 2011, 05:58:42 pm

Likewise the coral group, 4s to finish highest of brighton, derby, millwall, brizzle, pompei

http://sports.coral.co.uk/sport/en#/markets/2/TN-STRD-Group-C/Group-C

edit: but betting on your own team, bit of a nogo for me.

tomtom · August 03, 2011, 07:19:30 pm

The Jimmy Bullard and Hull saga may come to a head tomorrow. He was suspended from training and then told not to come back this week after something (no one is saying what) happened on a club training camp in Slovenia. Rumours of him turning up pissed at training, and the latest is some whisperings of dalliances with the white nose powder..

Delays in making any sort of announcement this week have got the boards thinking we may be trying to dismiss him under breach of contract.... A shame, but it seems the manager doesnt want anything to do with him (he has no squad number)...

Cheeky chappy maybe, but he's got under alot of peoples skin here by demanding more money when a Celtic deal was on the cards and if his contract runs to the end its c.£3 million in wages... *gulp*

Jaspersharpe · August 04, 2011, 11:51:51 am

Quote from: nai on August 03, 2011, 05:58:42 pm

Likewise the coral group, 4s to finish highest of brighton, derby, millwall, brizzle, pompei

http://sports.coral.co.uk/sport/en#/markets/2/TN-STRD-Group-C/Group-C

edit: but betting on your own team, bit of a nogo for me.

Donny to win Group D at 9/2 looks a decent bet.

Coventry & Watford are fucked, Peterborough are losing all their best players, Barnsley look likely to struggle and Palace are relying on Glenn Murray to score their goals (he's already started sulking and pissed the fans off). Donny are always written off and generally do better than expected.

Leicester top 6 at 2/5 should be printing money. If I was a pro gambler I'd be lumping on this.

nai · August 04, 2011, 01:39:36 pm

Apparently an unprecedented run of injuries severely hampered Donny last year so they should outperform expectations, that does look a decent shout.

Liking the sound of Brentford in League One but can't find anything like the quoted 20-1 odds.

Re the EPL title race, a spanner in the works is African Cup of Nations in January which will hamper Chelsea (4), Arsenal (3) and City (3) more than ManU (1) and, if you're counting them as challengers, Liverpool (0)

Also some interesting City Stats, most clean sheets and best return vs lower half clubs, only losing to Wolves. But worst record of top4 vs each other and no double over top half clubs.

nai · August 04, 2011, 01:42:33 pm

I just love shit like this.

Grubes · August 04, 2011, 01:48:08 pm

Quote from: nai on August 04, 2011, 01:39:36 pm

Liking the sound of Brentford in League One but can't find anything like the quoted 20-1 odds.

really I was thinking of putting them in a betting thing at work to go down ...

nai · August 04, 2011, 01:57:46 pm

Uwe Rosler, disciplinarian, respect of the dressing room, smells like team spirit. Solid in defence and has bought (potential) goals.

With the price having dropped to between 12 & 16 the Handicap looks decent value, +14 points on Huddersfield at 14/1, EW paying 4 places rather than 3.

Grubes · August 04, 2011, 02:07:37 pm

saying that what do I know. I just bet a guy a fiver that man city will win the league not man u (quits if anyone else wins).

nai · August 04, 2011, 02:33:11 pm

Maybe this will make you more optimistic
though I'd have gone to a bookies and taken 3or4-1 if I wanted to bet on city

Jaspersharpe · August 04, 2011, 02:47:19 pm

My mate at work (who incidentally loses a fucking fortune gambling on horses, football, roulette etc every year) shot my Donny Rovers bet down in flames (but didn't actually give a reason why).

We now have a £20 bet that Doncaster will finish above Barnsley.

tomtom · August 04, 2011, 03:00:14 pm

Quote from: Jaspersharpe on August 04, 2011, 02:47:19 pm

My mate at work (who incidentally loses a fucking fortune gambling on horses, football, roulette etc every year) shot my Donny Rovers bet down in flames (but didn't actually give a reason why).

We now have a £20 bet that Doncaster will finish above Barnsley.

I'll bet you £5 Hull finish above Brighton...?

Jaspersharpe · August 04, 2011, 03:17:21 pm

No way. I think you will!

Jaspersharpe · August 05, 2011, 08:45:32 am

Guy I work for is a Bolton fan and was bemoaning their injury list the other day and worrying that the squad is very thin. That was before this happened........

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/aug/04/bolton-wanderers-tyrone-mears-broken-leg

Thought they might be good value to get relegated but odds of about 11/2 don't look good enough.

QPR at 6/4 on the other hand.......

Grubes · August 05, 2011, 09:19:55 am

I am really looking forward to this season.
I think every league will be more open than it has been for years. Their have been a lot of players moving around. Also I think the leagues seem to have a more even spread of quality.

Looking at the magic8 thing we do at work so does most people. I have not seen such a wide range of teams picked in any of the past four years we have done it.

Really excited now. roll on 3pm tomorrow

Jaspersharpe · August 05, 2011, 09:46:10 am

The BBC is doing all it's coverage (Football Focus / Five Live / Football League Show) from the Amex tomorrow.

nai · August 05, 2011, 09:53:03 am

now the doom and gloom has dispersed somewhat from stans, a new broom has swept through and cleared most of the deadwood away, I'm more excited about this season than any of the last 10. Unlikely to go up or down, win a cup or make an impact in europe. But, we might just play some entertaining football and see some genuinely exciting young players making their mark.
And there's the sideshow of the most open Premier League for years, awesome.

Falling Down · August 05, 2011, 10:47:09 am

FOOTBALL !!!!

Jaspersharpe · August 05, 2011, 10:51:11 am

Is it just me who's hoping there's a massive punch up at the Charity Shield on Sunday? After City win 5-0 of course..

Grubes · August 05, 2011, 03:43:43 pm

AFC wimbledon get have there first ever football league match tomorrow and I just saw a SSN interview with Vinnie jones talking about so this is as good a point as any to link in a classic BBC TV show about the crazy gang verses Liverpool in 1988

Warning this video contains Margret Thatcher

Part 1 of many