Search icon

Uncategorized

10th Sep 2010

September 10: Weekend fancies

GAA is conspicuous by its absence in the latest edition of the weekend punts, but we have some football, tennis and horse racing to make up for it.

JOE

GAA is conspicuous by its absence in the latest edition of the weekend punts, but we have some Premier League football, tennis and horse racing to make up for it.

By Conor Heneghan and William Nestor

Weekend Patent

In the Premier League, Newcastle take on Blackpool at home, with Andy Carroll looking to continue an excellent run which has seen him score four goals in his last two encounters. After the highs of their opening day victory against Wigan, Blackpool have learned the harsh reality of life in the top flight, conceding eight goals since.

We think it will be another tough day at the office for Ian Holloway’s men and like Andy Carroll’s chances of getting on the scoresheet.

Back Andy Carroll to get the first goal at 16/5.

The Vincent O’Brien National Stakes is the main event at the Curragh tomorrow with €116,000 at stake for the winner.

It’s a two-horse race according to the betting market which will probably be marginally led by Aidan O’Brien’s main protagonist of four, Zoffany.

Support for Jessica Harrington’s PATHFORK would be worth noting, as this course and distance winner is sure to run a big race.  We reckon that, under a determined Fran Berry ride, he’ll dot up to follow on from his Group 2 win.

Pathfork is 2/1 to land the big one at the Curragh on Saturday at 3.10.

When Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic face off in the US Open semi-finals on Saturday evening, it will be the fourth time in four years they have met at Flushing Meadows.

In that time, Djokovic has taken only one set off ‘Roger the Great’ and we have a feeling that the statistic will be the same come the end of tomorrow’s match. Djokovic hasn’t lost a set in the last four rounds, but Federer hasn’t lost one in the entire tournament and looks as if he has a point to prove.

Follow our lead and go for Federer to win 3-0 at 7/4.

A €3 patent (total outlay €21) will return just over €230.

Break the Bookie

It’s been a pretty turbulent week for Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, who will be the subject of merciless abuse from the Everton fans tomorrow lunchtime following recent revelations about his off-field encounters with ladies of the night.

It will be a serious test of Rooney’s character against his former club and while there’s every chance he could score the winner and win the man of the match, there’s also a possibility he could blow a fuse and get an early bath.

We have a slight inkling that the latter situation might occur and think that a punt on Rooney to receive the first card of the game is decent value at 10/1.

Manager Joe Schmidt has endured a torrid start to his Leinster career with a couple of substantial pre-season defeats and a heartbreaking reverse at the hands of Glasgow Warriors last weekend. With the talent in Leinster’s ranks, however, they’re bound to get back on track sooner rather than later and will want to do just that against the Cardiff Blues this weekend.

The Blues are many people’s favourites to win the Magners League this season and will hold no fear of the RDS on Saturday evening. In any case, with O’Driscoll and Sexton back in the Leinster line-up, we fancy them to prevail, although there won’t be much in it in the end.

We’re going for Leinster to win by 6-10 points at 9/2.

It’s back to the Premier League for our last and most ambitious punt of the weekend. A few weeks back, we tipped Chelsea to win 5-0 against a shockingly poor Wigan side and if it wasn’t for a late Yossi Benayoun goal on that occasion, our bet would have come in at well over 20/1.

With the champions taking on a West Ham team that look a bit all over the place at the moment, we’re going to chance our arm at the same scoreline once more for tomorrow’s clash at Upton Park.

Take a risk and back Chelsea to beat West Ham 5-0 at 25/1.

A tenner on those three could return €15,730, enough to purchase a few long-term tickets for the Aviva Stadium which was looking pretty empty on Tuesday evening.

Topics: