"Yes", said my friend, "well we'll find out this weekend, 'cos they have Blackburn at the so-called SportsDirect Arena".
The "SportsDirect Arena". Hmm, yes. Excuse me, while I just cough the word "bollocks" into my hand.
Of course as everyone knows, it's still St. James' Park, but it did remind me of a story I heard years ago (doubtless apocryphal), when Man City were still playing at Maine Road. The Manchester club had an idea to name of one of their stands in honour of any player that topped a fan's poll. The idea was that the fans could choose the past player of their liking and also provide a suggestion for the full name of the stand itself.
The poll was duly set up and the club waited with eager interest to find out what name the new stand might be given. Shortly afterwards, however, the idea was scrapped and no mention of it was ever made again. No one really knows why.
But some say that Colin Bell, their famous midfielder from the 70s and the player that City fans often quoted as being the best player ever to have graced the sky blue shirt, had clearly topped the poll. Rumour has it that he was the runaway leader, along with a clear winner for the name of the stand itself.
However, it was presumably thought by the club far too unsavoury to name the new stand, "The Bell End", and so it was left at that.
I had intended on trading the Wycombe v Huddersfield game tonight as it was on Sky, but due to my daughter's Brownies activities I got in a little bit late - and I saw that the goals were flying in. Decided to leave that game alone. Using the radio, I worked on the Liverpool v Oldham match, and ran a little trade on the Correct Score market which turned out well. Simple as a wrinkle on a pimple.
I have absolutely no idea why the Liverpool game wasn't on the telly-box tonight. Listening to it, the match sounded quite entertaining. Of course, not being able to watch the match, I couldn't use my usual techniques, but there is always more than one way to skin a cat. If you don't have a radio for your trading, then I'd recommend you get one (don't listen to the radio over the internet as it's delayed). Having a decent radio at hand can be surprisingly useful in a number of ways. And all traders should gather every weapon and tool that they can possibly get hold of.
The other small items were my attempts at pre-match trading on this game. Tiddly stuff but it all helps I suppose.
Soccer: £56.63 | Tote: | Total P&L: £56.63
Soccer Showing 1 - 3 of 3 markets
Market Start time Settled date Profit/loss (£)
Soccer / Liverpool v Oldham : Match Odds 06-Jan-12 20:00 06-Jan-12 21:56 4.58
Soccer / Liverpool v Oldham : Correct Score 06-Jan-12 20:00 06-Jan-12 21:50 50.40
Soccer / Liverpool v Oldham : Half Time 06-Jan-12 20:00 06-Jan-12 20:49 1.65
By the way, Liverpool went all the way up to 1.26 before the first goal went in, so you could have traded this for the first fifteen minutes. I doubt any of you would have time to green-up after the Oldham goal as there was only about 20 seconds between that suspend and Liverpool equalising.
Couldn't agree more about the radio. In my opinion it's almost better than watching, as the commentators have to paint a picture for the listener and as such you get a very good idea of the game without tying yourself down to watching it on your pc or another screen.
ReplyDeleteLiverpool, out of interest, were 1.49 to lay in the half time market. I traded out at 2.02 after about 20 minutes such was the onslaught Oldham mustered in the early minutes of the game. The equaliser was fortunate to put it kindly and spoilt in some ways a potentially very interesting cup tie!
Hi Dave
ReplyDeleteTotally agree with you on the radio thing. Even if the match is on TV, I tend to have the radio on instead.
Well done on the HT market. I only traded this pre-match with relatively small stakes, but this market moves quite quickly and does offer good potential (as you obviously know already).
It was a shame about the quick equaliser. If they had managed to hold out for a bit longer, then who knows what would have happened.