Monday, April 29, 2013

Monday .... Seventh time lucky !

Well, Saturday turned out to be photo 3 in the end ( see below and right, with the Bees missing a 94th minute penalty, which would have seen Championship football at Griffin Park next season.

I have no wish to comment on the events surrounding the penalty and who should , or should not, have taken it and do not believe boss Uwe Rosler should have openly said anything either. These things are always best done behind closed doors.

Marcello Trotta has come in for unbelievable criticism (that is being polite), he is 19-20 years old, the same age as one of my daughters and if she had come in for the same level of abuse, I do not think I would have been able to control myself.

At the end of the day, no one has died, Brentford still have a chance to go up through the playoffs, I believe that they will be in the Championship at some stage in the next two years, hopefully next month and the club on and off the field has made massive strides over the last 2-3 years. It is no longer run along League 1 lines and will not remain a third tier club for long.

Also, like most football supporters I am a sick addict, Brentford are my drug of choice and whilst I desperately want them to do well,  if I am honest, the buzz I get from following/watching them is only going to be minimally increased in the Championship and is only ever similarly slightly decreased in League 2. Although touch wood, I think the days of fourth tier football are behind us.

Since I started supporting Brentford, they have spent 70% of their time in the third tier and one single season in the second, they have finished second in "League 1" and not been promoted (94-95 the only year just one teeam went up !), relegated five times, lost six times in the playoffs ( a "perfect" record) and won basically sod all.

However, big family occasions aside, almost all the most memorable single events of my life ( good and bad) involve the club and the events of Saturday are just one more. Hopefully Wembley on May 19th will be another, but for very different reasons and we will be able to laugh about "the miss".... OMG what if the playoff final is decided on penalties !

Good Luck.

BTW, that photograph of Rosler and Peter Gilham (Mr Brentford) is a favourite of mine and never fails to cheer me up, it is more amusing if you know Gilham, or have seen him as enthusiastic match day announcer at Griffin Park .

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Today's the day ! Hopefully photo 1 or 2 and not 3 !




Betting preview: Championship: Cardiff City- Bolton Wanderers



This should come with a government wealth warning, as I have not been in the best of form for the last week,  but having said that, both Cardiff City (winning 13.0) and Watford each way ( 67.0) secured big Championship paydays for us in the last 7 days, so hard to complain too much, but I will anyway !

There is another preview from this afternoon's action already posted on the clubgowi website.

 Championship: Cardiff City- Bolton Wanderers

Today is going to be party day at Cardiff for home supporters and maybe players, promotion and even the title is secure,so little really to play for. The visitors would clinch a playoff spot with a win, if Nottingham Forest fail to do likewise at Millwall. If Wanderers lose, matters would be outside their control should Forest win.

I have championed Bolton since the change in backroom staff earlier in the season, last time we discussed them was two weeks ago of their visit to Bristol City ...

Regular/ long term readers know that I am a BIG fan of Bolton boss Dougie Freedman and his backroom team, especially his number two, the hugely experienced Lennie Lawrence. Freedman is going to the top of the game as a coach, I suggested to you back in December when they were 17th in the Championship, that he was starting to pull this club up by their bootstraps and that he could get this team into the playoff picture and three points today, is likely to take the Trotters into the post season places. The work that Freedman did at Crystal Palace, both on and off the pitch, was amazing and he is instilling a lot of that same pride and discipline at Wanderers.When he convinced Lawrence to move North to re-join him he said it was "one of the best signings Bolton will ever make"  adding, I'm the driver of this ship, I will drive it through commitment, effort, desire and honesty, Lennie Lawrence will steer it." Great comment !

The visitors have won seven from nine, including against Brighton and Hull and have kept five cleansheets in that sequence. City are bottom of the Championship, eight points from safety with a worse goal difference than most, effectively nine points adrift with 5 rounds the play. They will be relegated, but have to give it a go, so will be all out for maximum points and will be gambling and taken chances against a superior team, knowing deep down, that ultimately it will not be enough anyway, which is a tough situation. Freedman will not underestimate City, but neither will he want anything less than the win and a 4-1 early season loss here for his Palace team, will serve as further motivation . Just three road wins for Wanderers, but I worry less about stats like that and team news at this stage of the season, despite which, the visitors have no new problems and a quality squad to pick from. Away win.

They won that 2-1 and have since lost by the odd goal in five at Leicester city and beat Middlesbrough at home. They will be without David Ngog and Jay Spearing today, but any losses should be offset by desire and determination to get something today and Freedman and Lawrence will have his team fired up for the challenge. City will be without Leon Barnett in central defence, he has been recalled by parent club Norwich City, he is set to be replaced by 19 yo Ben Nugent, who has only ever made six first team starts ( 8 in all comps, with just one cleansheet). Just one point seperates these two over the second half of the season and with the draw no bet safety net, Wanderers look the pick. 1.25 units Bolton Wanderers level ball asian line/ Ibramarket.

Good Luck.


Friday, April 26, 2013

Friday ...

I am just putting the finishing touches to the first of two Friday newsletters, if you would like to receive a free

copy, just send an email to info@clubgowi.com with the subject title "freebie".

Good Luck.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Results .....

The results page on the clubgowi website has been updated with statistics for seven years of free to view
content, detailed newsletter results and a look how the odds have held up for readers who are not always available to bet first thing in the morning, when the email is sent out to subscribers, in other words, something for everyone and it is definitely worth a look.

I have previewed four matches today, with a selection in each, all at odds against, but to be honest, for me, this week is all about Brentford-Doncaster Rovers and 15.00 on Saturday cannot come quickly enough ! Since I have been following the Bees and that is a very long time, they have had one single season of second tier football and if they win at the weekend, they will have another next season, so you can probably appreciate how big a deal this is, with supporters flying in from all over the world to be at Griffin Park and why not, where else would you want to be !

Good Luck.

 




Sunday, April 21, 2013

Sunday update.....

Tough week in terms of new bets, but we had a reasonable Saturday and clawed a little back and are only
"four" points down heading into the Sunday action.

As we won 18+ points last week and Cardiff City at odds of 13.0 secured the Championship title and another 15 points or so of profit yesterday, it is hard to be too upset, especially as Brentford head into the final weekend of the regular season, needing "only" to beat Donaster Rovers to secure promotion to the Championship.... it is going to be a long week until 15.00 next Saturday !

I have previewed five football matches today and put up a bet at circa 100-1, which I feel has a pretty solid chance .

We have already hit good form in J-League this season and are cranking things up in MLS (link) and with Brazilian football (where we were even more successful last season) starting shortly, we can start dreaming about all the summer profits we are likely to make. Nothing is guaranteed, but June-July have been our best consecutive months in each of the last three years.

Good luck with all your bets today.


Tuesday, April 16, 2013

What a weekend !

I was left mentally drained after the weekend, there was plenty to like almost everywhere you looked, clubgowi subscribers were on Adam Scott to claim the green jacket, but you did not need financial involvement to get sucked into the drama at Augusta. It was easy to feel sorry for Angel Cabrera (afterwards that is !) who could have won at either playoff hole, but the Aussie was a worthy winner and long overdue to win his first major. The spirit with which the extra holes were played, says much about the two men, who behaved like men and golf in general.
including a pulsating last 30 minutes in the Manchester City- Chelsea FA Cup semi-final which the competition deperately needed after the events of Saturday. But two events left me physically ruuning on empty and whilst I was too pumped to sleep much on Sunday night, after the US Masters, but I slept like a baby last night !

However, if it was drama you wanted, Griffin Park on Saturday was the place to be, Brentford were hosting Portsmouth and desperately needed all three points to continue their push for automatic promotion. Pompey followers had snapped up their full allocation of tickets weeks ago, many more found tickets to the home ends and others followed the game from outside the stadium. They know that their club will be playing fourth tier football next season, but were looking for maximum points to try and ensure their points deduction comes this season, and not next and more importantly, to celebrate the completion of a year long deal for Portsmouth supporters to take over ownership of their club. Anyway, all this made for a buoyant, celebratory, nervous and at times intimidating atmosphere and for much of the 90 minutes, all four of these emotions were to the fore at the same time ! Brentford led early, but Portsmouth scored two fantastic goals to take the lead and for ten minutes or so the Bees high tempo dropped, but it was soon back up again , with three very good substitutions from Uwe Rosler. The home players were running on empty after a match on a tough surface on Wednesday night, but their desire, commitment and refusal to lie down found a way back and two goals inside 90 seconds turned the match on it's head. Wild scenes followed, I do not remember a single goal being celebrated at GP like the winner on Saturday and people were still going crazy 4-5 minutes later !

Brentford will have to pick themselves up again today for a hugely important trip to Bramall Lane to face promotion rivals Sheffield United .... Beelieve !

Good Luck.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

Saturday update

I asume that you all got got see the Sedan- Gazalec preview on the clubgowi website
yesterday, if not, why not ? Sedan won that 4-1 and whilst the hosts were down to sub 1.90 by the time I posted it on the site, the "over" was still trading at 2.16 and if you want first access to the odds, then sign up to the subscriber service!


If you are checking out the blog/ website/ social media pages, then you are obviously looking for help with your betting, believe me, 2-3 euros per day is cheap, infact, it is expensive not to !

Subscribers have already received two previews today (see below), these were sent at 16.00 UK time yesterday, Ventforet won 3-1, Nagoya 2-0 and it would make your breakfast taste so much better, if you already had those in the bank !

Subscribers received five full match previews for today, they can probably expect seven
tomorrow and we are already far enough ahead on the week to secure a profit even if all of those lose and whilst that is not in my plans, it is a nice safeguard !

Of more interest to me toda,y to be honest, are three points for my beloved Brentford, four wins and they are champions !

Good luck with your betting !


Ventforet Kofu- Kashiwa Reysol
We discussed the visitors last week ahead of their 3-3 home draw with Nagoya Grampus....

Kashiwa Reysol will be on cloud nine after that amazing 6-2 win at Suwon Samsung Bluewings in midweek, with nine Champions League group points in the bag, they can forget about the midweek visit from the South Korean side for the time being and concentrate fully on getting some league points, ahead of a pair of consecutive road games. Left back Wataru Hashimoto remains out injured and they have not kept a cleansheet in the last eight J-League he has missed and both FC Tokyo and Sendai had plenty of joy down this flank in recent wins over Reysol, this is something Grampus can look to exploit.

They drew the home game with Suwon in midweek and are in a very strong position in the Champions League, I feel they will be very focused on the league now for a few weeks and looking to close the gap on Urawa and Yokohama at the top of the table. However, Hashimoto remains out injured and that leaves the visitors vunerable at the back, experienced midfielder Ryoichi Kurisawa is also suspended and they have underperformed without him in the past (he missed the 2-1 loss at Sendai).

Ventforet have had an odd return to the top flight, being unbeaten in three road starts, but losing both home games and failing to score against Nagoya in one of those. However, they are close to full strength and will be really buoyed by a road win in both league and cup in the last 7 days, the 3-1 win at Omiya Ardija in midweek was an especially noteworthy
performance and the goals will have done them a lot of good confidence wise. They will want to win now in front of their own supporters and a drained opponent, missing two key players might be ideal.

However, Kashiwa are full of goals and scored ten in doing the double over Ventforet the season before last. I expect both to score and this match to go over with a degree of comfort. 1.25 units "over" 2.75 goals 2.25 asian line/ Ibramarket.

Nagoya Grampus- Albirex Niigata

Grampus scored three on the road at Kashiwa last week, in my preview I wrote .... The visitors (Nagoya) have won their last two starts and have a good goal scoring record in this fixture, with at least two in six of their last ten visits, with six of the last eight going "over". we have still not seen striker Joshua Kennedy this season and midfielder Jungo Fujimoto (33-2-5 ... last season) is also missing, he has only missed two matches in the last 12 months, but Nagoya did score twice in both. I watched highlights from both their previous road games, a 1-0 loss at Urawa and win by the same margin at Vetforet Kofu, both were much more open than the scoreline suggests and only a combination of the woodwork and some inspired goalkeeping, stopped more goals from being scored. I think we will see that even out here, both to score and "over" will be my selection.


Kennedy and Fujimoto look set to miss out again. Albirex are very goal shy and have only scored 34 goals in their last 44 J-League starts, including three in six this season, they only survived last year by Vissel and Gamba both failing to beat teams with nothing to play for, on the last day of the campaign and seem set to battle relegation for the third year running. they did win 1-0 at Vegalta Sendai last week, but that is a lucky venue for Niigata, this is not, they have won just once in ten visits and that came in a largely meaningless cup game.It is not just a case of Niigata not taking chances, they have too little time on the ball to create many, only having the majority of possession in 7 of their last 40 starts.  Grampus are a team who like to see plenty of the ball, which is probably why they have performed so well in these h2h meetings, that 5-0 loss in Niigata last year aside, which I have to put down as a blip, incredibly enough even in that they had the lion's share of the ball. Last season they had a bit of a soft underbelly and too often let their head's drop, but they look a bit tougher this time round and the point at Kashiwa, where they trailed twice and late winner at Ventforet, hints at a mentally stronger team this year. They were top two in both 2010 (champions) and 2011 and almost snatched a CL spot last season, after being off the pace for most of the campaign. They will expect to challenge for top 3 and to do so, need to win games like this, there is also the small matter of payback for the loss in Niigata last season. 1.25 units Nagoya Grampus -0.25 ball 2.05 asian line/ Ibramarket.
Good Luck.

Friday, April 12, 2013

The Eagles have not quite landed, but are hovering !

I have not posted much on the blog, Twitter or website this week, but have sent out a few freebie previews
by email and everyone in the database will have got to see the Galatasaray preview ( reproduced in the post below).  Also, 276 of you were sent the preview directly below on February 14th.....one Europa League outright bet on Benfica at 26.0 +... there was 29.0 available, now, eight weeks later they are facing Fenerbahce in the semi-final and trading at 2.75 !

Nine football previews this week so far, seven winners, one push and one loss , today, I have previewed six matches for subscribers, four today and two for the Saturday morning J-League matches... I am a busy boy !

As I have told you many times before, I work hard so that subscribers do not have to, that is what they pay the big bucks for ( 7 euros for the Friday-Sunday previews !!!!!!). Give yourself a Spring treat.

Good Luck.


Europa League: (Written February 14th)

The last ten runnings of the Europa League/ UEFA Cup have seen seven winners from the Iberian Peninsula, five Spanish winners and two Portugese, they also supplied four losing finalists between them and all four semi finalists last year, the other three winners came from Eastern Europe, with two Russian winners and one from the Ukraine.
The Eastern teams are at a disadvantage early, coming off their winter break, but once we are in mid/late March, the pendulum swings the other way and they are fresher and at their peak, when others are beginning to tire.

This says as much about how these countries view the competition than anything else, they always show it respect and want to do well. Italian teams have a terrible record and since it was renamed the Europa League, only one has got past the Round of 32 and they lost in the Round of 16.

There are three Serie A teams left in the competition, Lazio, Napoli and Inter, but all have other major objectives for the season and I would offer a word of caution about all of them, not to say that they cannot win/ progress, just that I doubt that they are overly bothered.

The final is in Amsterdam this year and we can expect Ajax to be very motivated, but they might well have to see off Chelsea in the round of 16..

Atletico Madrid and Levante are the only two Spanish teams remaining and are drawn to face each other in the Round of 16, Atletico are looking to win for the third time in four years and given their league position, 12 points behind Barcelona and 11 clear of the fourth placed team, they already look assured of a Champions League spot for next season and I see no reason why they will not again be fully focused and this looks a decent draw for them, they have to be favourites IMO and 8.0 is a perfectly fair price, although a little skinny for my liking in a 32 runner race.

Despite facing a difficult tie with Bayer Leverkusen and going toe to toe with Porto for the domestic title, Benfica keep catching my eye at 29.0 in the outright market, they would play either Dynamo Kiev or Bordeaux next and I would favour them to beat either. They are unbeaten domestically, 14-4-0 and were a little hard done by in the Champions League. They look committed to this and all the big guns have travelled and they do have some very impressive weapons ....

Benfica: Artur Moraes, Paulo Lopes ,Bruno Varela, Melgarejo, Maxi Pereira, Luisinho, Luisão, Garay, Roderick Miranda , Jardel , André Almeida, Ola John, Enzo Perez, Salvio, Matic, Nicolás Gaitán, Urreta , André Gomes, Rodrigo, Lima, Cardozo.

They can field a starting eleven full of internationals and have a very nice mixture of experience and exciting young talent. Garay, Perez and Gaitan were all in the Argentine squad for the recent friendly in Stockholm, Salvio was in the squad for the previous international and is the youngest of the quartet. They have the class to go deep in this if they wish and the squad they have taken to Germany looks a statement of intent.
Leverkusen host Augsburg on Saturday afternoon, what is it with the Bundesliga ? Give them an extra day for goodness sake ! They are going to make some rotation between the two games of course, boss Sami Hyypiä admitted that and also that "a couple of our players have slight problems", refusing to give fiurther details. Almost four thousand visiting supporters have tickets for the game, which will make for a very good atmosphere, if pushed, I like the visitors with the handicap start, but must admit that +0.25 ball at sub 2.0 is not my favourite quote and if we are taking the outright anyway, I am happy to stick with that. 1 unit Benfica to win Europa League outright 26.0 + , there is bigger in a place or two.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Read the content .....

 I feel a little like the school teacher who after a failed test, continually tells the student to "read the question",
as I am always going on about the value of reading the clubgowi content, as opposed to just the red type selections/ results, but it is true and yesterday was a prime example.

Only a brief preview of the Galatasar- Real Madrid match, but take one minute to read it and if you watched the match you will appreciate how on the ball ,the notes, written  11 hours before kick off ,were.


Champions League: Galatasaray-Real Madrid ( written yesterday)
Real won the first leg 3-0, but Galatasaray showed enough attacking intent in the first half in Madrid to make a famous home win tonight at least a possibility. There is no way that the Spanish giants will not progress, but they will be without Sergio Ramos and Xabi Alonso, with the pair ensuring they picked up yellow cards after the tie was secure, so that they can enter the semi finals with a clean slate, not the first time we have seen these tactics from Real and Jose Mourinho. I think that the visitors might look for an early goal , they have scored in all 16 road games in the competition with "The Special One" at the helm and then switch off, which would allow the hosts to at least save face in front of a hostile and passionate crowd. Unfortunately Galatasaray striker Burak Yilmaz is also suspended, which is a loss, but they still have the firepower to trouble the visitors and Didier Drogba proved his well being with two goals over the weekend, this is very likely to be his swansong at this level of competition and I would not rule out a goal ( or two ?) for him, especially with Real short of options in central defence and vunerable from set pieces. Given that I feel Real will score (hardly a big surprise) and Gala are also without central defender Dany Nounkeu (31-0-0 all comps), the match clearly has goal potential. I see something like 2-3, 3-2 here and am going to opt for Galatasaray to score two or more ( over 1.5 goals), this is on offer at between 2.75 and 3.25 and I would make it a 1 unit pick at the lower odds, 1.5 units at the upper end. Many companies who do not have this option at present, offer it "in play", once the match has kicked off.

What was right ?

Real scored that early goal.

Galatasaray won the match.

Real sat back after the break.

Didier Drogba scored.

The match ended 3-2.

Galatasaray scored two or more goals.


To subscribe to the full service, receive 100 similar match/event previews each month directly to your email inbox and have the newsletter format explained, click here. 



Good Luck.


Sunday, April 07, 2013

clubgowi website

There is a free offer on the clubgowi website , but you will need to be quick .

Good Luck.

Friday, April 05, 2013

Friday update ....


I definitely cannot repeat last Friday's nine winners ( see below) as I have only previewed five matches
today,  but one of  those was a very strong (1.75 unit ) selection, so I am hopeful/confident of turning a profit.

There was a free preview on the clubgowi website yesterday , which won and hopefully you all got to see that. Subcribers were given Benfica outright in the Europa League just seven weeks ago, which you can also read about in that article, it was given at 26.0 +, but many are on @ 29.0 (28-1) and with the Eagles now trading at circa 3.75, we have plenty of excitement for our money.  30 euros on that, would basically pay for a full one year subscription in one fell swoop, but I do not have to tell you what incredible value the email service offers.

Good Luck.