BinoBalls

The beauty of the internet age is that, in days gone by, you pretty much had to form your opinions from whatever (biased) evidence you read in the papers or heard Gerry McNee saying on the radio. Thick, petulant Old Firm fans don’t like it when they don’t get something they want. “Yous are aw haudin back the Scottish game” — not one bit but I’m glad it ruined your day all the same.

2 bets this weekend. 2 winners. If only it were always thus. I placed the bets last Sunday when odds were first published, usually much easier to hoover up some value if you do it advance, if you can be arsed of course.

This weekend - Berwick to keep a clean sheet at home to Cowdenbeath 21/10. Cowden scored once in last 6. And that was a penalty.

This weekend I've got 3 x £20 singles on: Clyde to win at home to Edinburgh City (Evens at bet365 or Mcbookie). I've seen Stirling play both these sides in the last month and Clyde are miles ahead. Edinburgh will most likely play 5 at the back but they have scored 1 goal in their last 5 games and that was a free kick. Clyde aren't world beaters at all but in Goodwillie they have a player who looked every inch a former internationalist last weekend. If he's in the mood then I can see him scoring and / or setting some up. Peterhead to win away to Cowdenbeath (17/20 or 5/6). The Blue Toon haven't matched expectations so far this season, but by all accounts they were unfortunate not to win against in-form Montrose last weekend. However the main reason for this bet is Cowdenbeath -- on a similar vein to Edinburgh, they have little attacking threat and it's looking like another long slog for them this season. If Peterhead score twice, which is fairly likely, then I cannot see Cowden getting anything from the game. Chelsea at home to Arsenal (4/5 generally). I don;t usually bet on English football as I figure I don't know any more than the bookies, but I can't see past Chelsea on Sunday. Arsenal continue to be poor in the big league games and I don't see that changing against the champions. I'll also be sticking £20 on St Johnstone thanks to the comments above. I then have someone to blame if it all goes wrong. I like that.

This weekend: 1. Montrose Draw No Bet away to Peterhead. I got 10/3 earlier in the week (they were 5/1 to win at that point). Montrose 2nd in the league, playing well. I doubt theyll challenge for the title but their confidence is high. They've won away to Stirling in the challenge cup, and beaten Ayr on pens in same competition. So they can go away and do well. 2. Stirling Albion at home to Clyde. The game's been priced up as though it was last season. Stirling probably should be 8/11 or something, so anything above Evens is great value IMO. 3. St Mirren at home to Inverness. I got 13/10. Struggling to write much to justify my confidence here but i think St Mirren will be the team to catch this season, and this ganme could be the springboard. 4. Stenhousemuir at home to Cowdenbeath. Should be a marked difference in class between these 2. 10/11 is too generous IMO. 5. Dumbarton+2 can be had at 7/10 away to Dundee United. The Arabs' support seem very pessimistic this season and the crowd could get restless if Dumbarton sit in and make a game of it, which they are capable of if they play well.

Liking the look of Livingston at 3/1 away to TNS today. Should be a close game so 3/1 looks a bit high (William Hill and bet365).

Bet365's cashout offers are absolute dung-poo. A few seasons ago I had an antepost accumulator on various teams winning the league. Bet £200 to win £4,200. All teams apart from East Fife were top, in October East Fife were sitting 7th in their league, so I cashed out for a paltry £190. And of course they duly turned it around and won the league. Moral of the story: (1) never cash out. (2) bookies are all c***s.

Ooft, you'll have been loving Dundee Utd's late winner.

Take this, bookie scum! And that! And that!

Ayr United have ruined my weekend, and quite possibly my life.

I've got torn into: Ayr to win (8/13), and Clyde-Stenny Both Teams To Score (also 8/13). I've put 30 Pounds Sterling on the double. Defeat is unthinkable. Also got £10 singles on each of these fuckers, all outsiders but hopefully one of them comes up and then it's a good day: East Fife at home to Raith Rovers at 7/2 Brechin at home to Inverness at 5/1 Stirling Albion to win away at Peterhead at 4/1 (now gone, only 7/2 available)

f**k it, let's have another correct score bonanza.

Not sure if you've read The Seven Habits Of Highly Effective People, but chapter 5 is basically all about putting on huge correct score accumulators at ridiculous odds. I've reviewed your entries and I cannot see a weak link in there. Spend your £948,477.60 wisely.

Noticed that as well, I think it's because we lost 1-3 at home to Montrose during the week in the cup. However we changed a few players including our 2 biggest attacking threats, I don't think that game will have much bearing on Saturday. I'd personally make us about 4/6 for the home win -- Edinburgh lost to Hamilton U20 during the week so they aren't up to much either. I have £20 on Albion Rovers at home to Airdrie his weekend, but I got that when their price was 23/10 on Monday at bet365 (it was even 13/5 at McBookie on Tuesday). It's now into 11/10 so the value is probably gone. Again shows the value of taking the early price as sometimes the bookies get it wrong. Albeit the price has crashed so much partly (but not entrirely) because Airdrie sold their best striker to Dunfermline on Wednesday. Not much else I like this weekend.

Oh my Lord I do believe they both came in. I shall now reluctantly accept all adulation.

Well it's a minefield with some manager's treating this like a reserve fixture, but I have selflessly studied the absolute f**k out of the midweek games and my selections are as follows: Raith Rovers to beat Brora by more than one goal (Evens, or 11/10) I was concerned that Raith might rest a lot of players so I took the liberty of watching the interview with their assistant manager on raithrovers.net today (when I should have been listening to an horrendous conference call). They seem to be preparing for it like any other game and no mention was made of changing the starting XI. Although I expect they may rest 3 or 4, they are a full time club and they recently dispatched Buckie 1-6 in the league cup. Now, Brora have been pretty useful in the Highland League over the last few seasons, but that's still a level below League 2. They also have a 4 hour bus journey to Kirkcaldy to negotiate during the week. The home win is 2/5 but I fancy Raith will win by a few, so my bet is Raith to win by at least 2 goals. Alloa to win away to Dundee U20s (11/8 with McBookie, 5/4 elsewhere) Less confident of this and I'll probably wait to hear the team news from Alloa before I place a bet. But if you look at last season's cup, the various U20 teams on the whole faired pretty badly. There were exceptions -- such as Hearts U20s coming from 2-0 down to win at Stirling Albion, but we fielded a second string and got what we deserved. If Alloa put out most of the their first team then they should take care of the Dundee youngsters. Especially given last season, Dundee U20s only won 2 of their home league games all season (2016/17 U20 league table). Granted their team may have changed, but the U20 league hasn't even started yet so they'll likely not be as sharp as Alloa. The Wasps haven't been on fire this season by any means but I can't see past them here I'd make them about 8/11, so 11/8 looks like a good bet. -- I look forward to being inundated with complaints when neither of the above goes according to plan.

As someone who has had about 50 bookies accounts in various people's names, the answer is 'rarely'. Often it depends on whether the name and address you gave is on the electoral register. This can even be an issue if the name you registered with is different the name on the electoral register (e.g. Steve v Steven, Dave v David). It can feel a little invasive having to send personal info to a bookmaker but they're essentially protecting against identity theft.

OK cheers. I was hoping he might start Gordon Dalziel, Tony Rougier, Tade, Colin Cameron, Guido Van De Kamp, and of course Lewis Vaughan.

Anyone know what sort of team Rovers are likely to field against Brora? Given the way you dismantled Buckie in the league cup, I was fancying a bet on RR to win by more than 1 goal, but if Smith puts out your U20s then that may not be a good idea.

For my own bet I've gone baws-oot on Peterhead, back in the distant past of Wednesday when they were 8/11 (1.73) to win at home to Elgin. Elgin have been on a shite run and are especially flaccid away from home. Peterhead are the league favs and won 0-3 in the reverse fixture in the cup a few weeks ago. Complacency is the main enemy here. Odds are generally 1/2 now so the value has probably gone. It generally does pay to do your weekend bets a few days in advance - by the time Saturday comes round there's not as much value to be had as the bookies have adjusted the odds a bit. Happy punting all.

Can't see how much you've staked but I hope it's £1,000 as that treble is going to merrily romp home. Fairly confident you say? Looks like a 100.0% chance of success to me. Congratulations. Can't lose. Livi won 14 of last 18 away games, Ayr will blow away Forfar 4-0, and Peterhead will destroy a hapless Elgin. Probably 6-0. I've taken your selections and put them in one giant accumulator, such is my faith that each of your picks will win. Early retirement beckons for both of us. Shame it's only £10 max but you, my friend, will find yourself £70 richer this weekend. Well done. Nice tipping. You'll probably find the bookies have already paid out at half time. £70 banked. You can probably spend it at lunchtime, safe in the knowledge the winnings are only hours away. I've copied that, it's a raging certainty. Bet365 will literally be out of business by 5pm tonight.

First bet on a fresh new McBookie account. Lovely.

^^^ Bennett-Lite. With even worse grammar.

Well joining SBC isn't necessary but it does give good unbiased reviews of the tipsters out there. I follow 2 free ones - Hugh Taylor and Ben Linfoot. Both are on Twitter and alert when tips are up. But you have literally 30 seconds to get Hugh Taylor's tips on before the odds are slashed. The rest cost money. I pay for another 3. Nothern Monkey is a very good horse racing tipster who doesn't cost a lot. (http://www.northernmonkeypunter.co.uk/) The other 2 I follow are a bit more pricey. There are football tipsters out there too but it's harder to get an edge on the market with football so the potential profit isn't as high as with horse racing.

Yeah I still do the odd random bet myself. Such as last night - I put on that £10 double shortly before our game kicked off, despite having no clue about East Fife. Got lucky. But generally my bets all come from tipsters (check out Secretbettingclub.com). I bet on the horses every day even though I know fck all about horses. I have about £15k strewn across various bookies accounts at the moment. Just don't tell my wife. It's all about a mindset of treating betting as a source of income. Follow the few tipsters who know what they're doing, only place a bet if the odds are "value", and never do mug betting. Downside is most bookies eventually restrict you as they don't like people who make money.