My Morecambe team mates are no Ricky Hattons!

David Artell / David Artell / 13 December 2007 / Leave a comment Free £25 Bet

David Artell on waterlogged pitches, fancy dress Christmas parties, sparring partners and winning football bets

Our game this week is on a Friday night due to rugby. Sounds strange I know, but we're playing Wycombe away who share their ground with Wasps Rugby Club and they have a game on Saturday which is to be televised on Sky so our game got switched.

From our point of view there are two advantages. Number one is that Sky offered to pay for our hotel so we could stay overnight the day before but our gaffer declined as last Tuesday we went to Brentford on the day and got a result and he sees no reason to change winning habits. And secondly, it couldn't have worked out better as it's our Christmas party on Saturday night in Newcastle! The Christmas party is the one time of year where the gaffer knowingly allows us out for a drink and tells us to enjoy ourselves so long as we don't get into any trouble. There won't be this year for two reasons. Number one is that we had a boxing session in the gym on Monday which I'll tell you about later and the second is that we're going in fancy dress so there's not much 'street cred' in someone having a fight with Mr Bean! There's also Scooby Do, Superman and a Monk going amongst others so it should be a good day out. Hopefully a good result on Friday night will make it great day.

Our game last Saturday descended into a bit of a farce and was eventually abandoned after 22 minutes due to the rain. I can see the reason why the referee wanted to start the game as all the crowd were in the ground including a large away following, but it was barely playable at kick off and it was raining heavy and showed no signs of abating. It would have been a different story if it had sopped but it didn't and it was certainly the right decision. We got told that the kick off might be delayed to allow the rain to subside but that wouldn't have helped anyone, least not the players. Unlike tennis or boxing, we know when we're going to start and waiting around would have just annoyed everyone.

That brings me on to boxing and our session in the gym. Although quite a few of the lads watched Ricky Hatton's brave defeat they obviously didn't pick up any tips as quite literally my Gran could have hit harder than some of them. I have the utmost respect for boxers because to stand there and get hit takes some courage and its really hard work. We were only sparring for one minute but it was really tiring and a great workout.

Getting back to football, I said last week that predicting results in the Championship is sometimes easier than the Premiership due to the lack of squad rotation so I'm going to put my neck on the block and try and make a few quid from the West Brom v Charlton game. This is coming of the back of winning tips of [8.8] (Birmingham's win at Spurs) and last week's [4.1], where I said the winning margin would be two goals between Reading and Liverpool.

For me the game will be won and lost by whoever wins the battle between Charlton's defence and West Brom's attack. West Brom seems to have goals in them anywhere on the park, no more so than in Kevin Phillips. If he plays (he is coming back from a knee injury) then I would always bet on him to score. He has scored goals wherever he has played and even though he is 34, his legs still keep him going. He must love scoring goals still because he can't be short of a bob or too. Maybe he just doesn't know what he wants to do after football but while he is scoring goals, the Baggies fans won't want him to decide. The bet I'm going for this week is a West Brom clean sheet at [3]

Tags: betting on football, David Artell, Morecambe FC, Ricky Hatton