Non-league / Editor / 12 September 2007 /

Boswell's Betfair Blog - a bi-weekly round up of the best plays in the world of non-
league football

Boswell's Betfair Blog - a bi-weekly round up of the best plays in the world of non-
league football (Gary Boswell has been a non-league football betting specialist since 1999 and was the betting correspondent for the Non-League paper-2001-2006. He was a close season transfer coup for the new international publication NonLeague Today and also signed to write for Betfair at the end of the 06/07 season).

I've worked hard to try and fancy Salisbury at 4.0 to win Thursday's Live on Setanta game. Their away form puts me off. The 4-0 walloping at Torquay was indicative that the Blue Square Premier honeymoon is over for Nick Holmes' debutants. They will find it tough to win at established Conference outfits as the season progresses and as they also failed to win in early visits to Droylsden and Histon, it does look like the Raymond McEnHill is the place to be putting your dough on the Whites. They remain undefeated there which has meant an impressive start to the new season overall but the tremendous defensive reputation that got them promoted last year will come under another severe test at the New Lawn. Forest Green remain one of my outside fancies for the title and now that the favourites winning on the telly hoodoo has been broken by Halifax, I shall be supporting them at 1.96 or better. Jim Harvey's strike force of Fleetwood & Carey-Bertram is ably supported by a talented midfield with Lee Dodgson creating especial menace down the left. I expect the Rovers' aggressive home formation to prevail.

422 minutes without letting a goal in is the sort of stat to make me sit up and take notice. Steve King's Lewes side are proving extremely difficult to get past in Blue Square South and the beautifully named Dripping Pan has the potential this season to become the sort of fortress where visitors live in fear of getting the boiling oil treatment! Equally effective on the road, they can be fancied to be far too strong for Richie Hanlon's St Albans who got points on the board last week but still managed to concede three times in the process. The Rooks boast Ian Selley and Simon Wormull who are playing arguably at a level one below their strength aswell as hotshot Paul Booth who has scored eight in seven. I expect them to swarm all over the Saints who can be laid with confidence.

Blue Square North boasts the Match of the Day at Borough Park where Workington Reds play host to unstoppable league leaders Kettering Town. The Reds were dealt a hammer blow with the defection of influential manager Tommy Cassidy and rookie Darren Edmondson has some shoes to step into and a seriously hard act to follow. What they wouldn't give to have Bill Shankly back at Borough now!
Meanwhile Mark Cooper has blended experience into the young squad that inhabited Rockingham Road last season and Brett Solkhon in particular has added a sense of purpose to the Poppies who - as stated in the blog last week - are going to be extremely difficult to dislodge from the summit this season.
The Reed and Two Wrights partnership up front for the Reds will ensure that the Poppies get a test but I fancy the unbeaten record will stay intact and I recommend a small Lay on the home side.
Always keen to lay vulnerable home teams and there are two in the Premier this weekend worth taking on. Ebbsfleet are on a three game losing streak and must play host to a Kidderminster side who are four games unbeaten and have even started winning their home games! Their away record should mean a lay on Ebbsfleet will pay a decent divi. Likewise the woeful defending at the Kitkat this season should let freescoring Stevenage in for a cricket score. Laying York looks like being a standing dish until Billy McKewen can get that defence sorted out!
(590 words)

RECOMMENDATIONS:

2pts BACK FOREST GREEN to beat Salisbury at 1.96 or better
2pts LAY ST ALBANS against Lewes
1pt LAY WORKINGTON against Kettering
1pt LAY EBBSFLEET against Kidderminster
1pt LAY YORK against Stevenage

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