Well-Organised Graeme's Silly Bet

Weekend Betting:

Arsenal to draw with Sunderland
Chelsea to beat Wolves
West Ham to beat Hull
Derby to beat Swansea
Celtic to beat Dundee United
Inverness to beat Queen of the South
Stirling to beat Brechin

Odds: 154/1 with William Hill

Graeme's Silly Bet, Saturday 6th February

We are into February, getting near the business end of the season, and the 6 nations are back. Result.
Scotland are 20/1 to win the Six Nations this year. Don't do what my brother did and put a fiver on it. Idiot.
A more realistic punt this weekend, I believe, is an England/Scotland double. Cheeky fiver on that.
Moing on to the Active Nation Scottish Cup, a large accumulator is necessary.
Dundee to beat Ayr
Hibs to beat Montrose
Aberdeen to beat Raith
Inverness CT to draw with Kilmarnock
St Mirren to beat Rangers
Ross County to beat Stirling Albion (an interesting side battle in this game will be whether or not Shifty takes revenge on the Albion fan who's been slagging him off on OverTheBridge)

In the Premiership,
Bolton to beat Fulham
Man City to beat Hull
Man Utd to beat Portsmouth
Arsenal to beat Chelsea

Quick mention on an upcoming feature on here:

Shifty, Graeme, and a selection of guest pundits will be predicting the 23 players they think will be in the England World Cup Squad. Watch this space, because unlike the other much-hyped new features Shifty's always going on about, this one is actually going to happen quite soon

The only thing better than a round of pointless international fixtures...

...Is a round of some pointless international fixtures (with a few meaningful ones thrown into the equation) with some tasty lower-league ation thrown in as well. Here's me rundown of the weekend's fixtures:

• Denmark to beat Sweden. The Danes won the reverse fixture 1-0 (although in reality it was more comfortable than that), and a win at home to an underwhelming Sweden side will secure their place (and therefore that of many, many, many cases of Carlsberg) in South Africa next summer
• Republic of Ireland and Italy to draw. Italy have been somewhat unconvicing in this qualifying campaign, with many of their household names now the wrong side of 30. They were very poor in the Confederations Cup this summer, and could only manage a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture against Giovanni Trappattoni's improving yet functional side
• Germany to beat Russia. You can never rule out those Germans, even against Arshavin and co. They're also worth seriously considering to win the thing outright.

For my final tip, I'm going to dip into the Scottish Second Division and advise y'all to back Stirling Albion to beat Arbroath

'Mon Don Cowie for Scotland

Here's that new feature I was on about

Shifty's Last Word is delighted to confirm the arrival to the blog of our new columnist, Graeme. Representatives from The Ross-Shire Journal, The Turriff Advertiser and la Gazzetta Della Sport gathered at a press conference this morning, where it was confirmed that Graeme will write a weekly column entitled "Graeme's Silly Bet".

Graeme

Here's Graeme's musings for this weekend:

Thought I'd let my first post be Scotland-orientated;

1) The Old Firm notoriously struggle to perform after their midweek European excursions so this weekend, after Celtic's shambolic 2nd half display in Tel Aviv in which they seemed to wilt in the heat in Israel, the last thing Mowbray's men want to face is a resurgent Hearts side well pumped after their first victory in the league against Kilmarnock last Tuesday.

Silly prediction: Celtic to slip up again with a half-time/full-time bet of a Celtic/draw. 23/1 at Betfair

2) Coupon of the week:

I'm getting into the Scottish lower tiers this year and after seeing Stirling Albion last weekend myself, and the man who burnt £40 infront of the beggars, I can safely say that the Albion boys are awesome going forward on the pitch despite their deep financial problems off it.

That said, Alloa were equally strong and well organised at the back with impressive young goalkeeper David Crawford leading the way.

I also dislike Caley and Airdrie with equal venom so want to see them drawing, leading to relegation for these disgusting shams of teams and managers.

Silly treble of:

Alloa to beat Stenhousemuir @ 11/10

Airdrie to snatch a point with Caley @12/5

Stirling Albion to beat East Fife @ 4/6

If placed at WIlliam Hill £1 gets you £11.90

Cheers and see you next week

xxxxxxxxxxxx