Morning thoughts

Huge pressure on Jol

Some strange results yesterday with Udinese getting a draw from behind against Bologna at their fortress and Sampdoria getting hammered by Genoa at home 0-3. Then in the evening Spanish kick off Betis overturned some recent poor form by thrashing visitors Valencia 3-1. Salzburg were again there for the taking on the overs winning 0-5, and so to was a major opening when Standard Liege went down 1-0 to Oostende only to come back and win 2-4. The lay opportunity for 2.64 would have been jumped all over by the pro bettors I reckon.

Super Sunday wasn't quite as Super though, the two televised games managed zero goals as Reading-Brighton and Southampton-West Ham both drew 0-0, the latter I would have backed on the West Ham +0.5AH. The Bears managed a 1 point win which would have seen a -5.5 points handicap loss if you had punted from kick off on them.

In the Saturday rugby union matches New Zealand covered their -6.5 point handicap comfortably enough but there was lots of controversy surrounding that particular match as the IRB later deemed that a South African player should not have been yellow carded for a tackle. There was also a sending off for the Africans in a game littered with niggling encounters. NZ ran out 29-15 winners in the end whilst I was surprised that the Argentinians pushed the Aussies so near testing them 14-13 in Australia. 

And just to highlight the plight of Fulham for a second; many thought they would canter it against West Brom, but I disagreed. The boo boys are already out and this could be the start of a decline. I think they are in real trouble. West Brom on the handicap looked a right bargain and so it proved.