This week on The Eagles Punt (TEP), there is a renewed focus on football as we head towards the end of the season. With this weekend being Grand National weekend, I will also give a couple of selections for the big race.
I will offer a couple of selections on the Palace game of the weekend, as well as giving my opinion on the best additions to your weekend football accumulator before finally offering a couple of tips on a horse or two.
Last week’s results
Palace game selections: 2/2 +8.35
Other Football bets: 0/2 -2.00
Horse Selection: 1/1 +2.30
Total: +8.65
Overall results
Total Profit: +17.98
Palace game selections: +19.68
Other Football bets: -3.00
Horse Selections: +1.30
This week, Palace travel up to Sunderland to take on the struggling Black Cats, coming off a 1-0 victory over their Barcode friends from Newcastle via a Jermain Defoe wondergoal. Palace are coming off a 2-1 victory over outgoing Champions Man City, and despite riding our luck, we have been due some!
Goalscorer Bet
Anytime Goalscorer: Glenn Murray – 31/10 – Boylesports
If Sunderland continue with their tight front 3, then I am in no doubt that Bolasie and Zaha are going to have a field day down the wings. The more times the ball goes into the box, the more chance there is of Murray putting one of the chances away. Simple really!
Outside Bet
Palace to win to nil – 10/3 – Totesport
I don’t want to be one of them over-confident fans, but I think Sunderland will be on a massive come down after their win over Newcastle and will find Pardew’s troops too disciplined and talented coming off what was actually one of our poorer attacking performances for a while. I think the defence is good enough to keep Sunderland out and actually feel comfortable predicting a solid 2-0 away victory.
Treble For The Weekend – pays decimal odds (Boylesports)
- Middlesbrough to beat Rotherham (1/2 odds)
- Norwich to win at Bolton (17/20 odds)
- Watford to win at Millwall (19/20 odds)
It’s quite a simple proposition this week for the treble. 3 teams fighting at the top of the Championship, all of whom are playing teams who are vastly below them.
Grand National Selections
First Choice – Rocky Creek – 10/1 (current best price)
Second Choice (at a reasonable price) – Soll – 22/1 (current best price)
Having backed 5 horses for the race at various prices, I’ll probably get caught out by one of my other choices, but I’m going to go with Rocky Creek and Soll as my 2 main selections.
- Rocky Creek is trained by Paul Nicholls this year with this race as the aim, Rocky Creek has a big chance of victory. He has previous form over the Aintree fences and has multiple other points in his favour. He has had a breathing op since last year and is 9 pounds in front of the handicapper thanks to his victory in late February after the National weights had been released.
- Soll is trained by David Pipe and was brought into his yard last October. He popped up from seemingly nowhere with a victory the week before the National weights were released, and then re-appeared again after the weights to win another Chase race to also put him 7 pounds ahead of the handicapper. He will be carrying one of the lower weights in the race and was one of the last horses to make it in. Soll ran in the race off bottom weight a couple of years ago and finished 7th despite what was a poor round of jumping, the move to Pipe’s yard can only be a plus and the horse has a live chance.
This Week’s Horse Selection
Whisper to win the 2.50 at Aintree (Liverpool Staying Hurdle) – Talented horse who was left on the outside at Cheltenham during the Festival with a lot to do, and ran on well despite not being fully fit for the race. Won at this meeting last year and more than capable of turning the form with Cole Harden and Zarkandar.
Usual Disclaimer: Gambling is for over 18’s (says the 24 year old who has been gambling for about 16-17 years), and only bet money that you can afford to lose.
