For anyone who bets on football, you'll know the frustration that you can have when a team lets you down, and the sheer ecstasy you possess when your inferior knowledge finally pays. Sadly, it's usually one team that lets you down, which adds to the frustration. Yesterday, I managed to win 2 bets of £23 (Birmingham, MK Dons and Rotherham) and £202 (Chelsea, Peterborough and Doncaster), but this isn't about that. There was another even more magical bet.
The scene was this. I was sat at the Barnsley match, and we'd arrived at the ground a little early, 45 minutes early to be precise. So, I was on Ladbrokes mobile on my phone, perusing through my online betting account on Ladbrokes. I'd just previously formed a tactical master stroke of putting my remaining £4 on Chelsea to win away at Arsenal, giving me £13.60 to play around with. A couple of months ago, I managed to turn £5 into £100 by doing continuous bets and I was on my way to doing it again. The rolling accumulator had started to snowball.
Now, I needed to find a team that was (in my opinion) going to win and bet £13.60 on them. Barnsley seemed the obvious choice being that I was at the match, and we'd just come off the back of a 5-0 thrashing of Birmingham city, but that seemed too easy. Possibly Aldershot, my adopted second team, but again, something just didn't seem right. I studied and studied the list, considering teams such as Everton, MK Dons and Rotherham. Yet, I had to be careful, and as I scrolled down the list, something caught my eye. Clachnacuddin FC.
Although it may sound like a spell off Harry Potter, a quick internet search told me that Clachnacuddin were currently a semi-professional football team, and today were competing in the Scottish Cup, against Formantine united. Similarly, i'd not heard of Formantine either, but they obviously weren't as good as Clachnacuddin. With a name like that, they're world beaters. I'd seen and heard enough and quickly jumped back onto Ladbrokes to put my £13.60 on a Clachnacuddin win. Priced at 8/5 they were underdogs in contrast to the 'evens' priced Formantine. I added Clachnacuddin to the 'My Scores' section of my Sky Sports News app, and set my mind back to the Barnsley match.
It wasn't on it for very long though. It took the visitors around 5 minutes to take the lead, a trick free kick, that allowed Cresswell to get a shot on goal, which tickled underneath Alnwick and we were 1-0 down. Poor keeping. A quick check of the score up in Scotland told me it was still 0-0. A healthy start.
Ipswich then set about kicking lumps out of us. We're notable for our slick passing and they knew that, so decided to play it rough. Kicking and shoulder barging whenever they got the opportunity, referee Trevor Kettle seemed oblivious to them doing it but always called a foul whenever we did it. It was an infuriating first 20 minutes down at Oakwell, so again, I decided to check my phone for the latest scores. Rejoice, Clachnacuddin had took the lead through an own goal. Not the best way to take the lead, but a goals a goal and my faith in the recently found team was paying off.
Disaster struck. Not long after the goal, Kennedy had been shown a red card for deliberate hand ball. The underdogs were now even more up against it, and the pressure showed when in the 32nd minute, Park scored for Formantine to level the scoring. I was looking at my phone heart broken, thinking that this isn't going to work out as well as I wanted to. At this point, I was completely oblivious to the match that I was actually sat at, and jumped for joy to see that Clachnacuddin had somehow turned it back around and were now 2-1 up, with 10 men, thanks to a fine strike from Graham. They held out until half time, and went in with the lead. As did Ipswich.
The second half started, and Barnsley came out the better side. Ipswich were on the back foot and we were getting into our groove. We couldn't seem to grab that decisive equalizer though. On the other hand, Clachnacuddin were in dreamland, and so was I, as Pollock notched 2 in the space of 2 minutes to send the plucky side 4-1 to the good. Unbelievable scenes were unfolding in Iverness.
As both matches wore on, Stephen Dawson finally got our equalizer, courtesy of a great volley over the goalkeeper. Clachnacuddin saw out a 4-2 victory.
I was happy at the point at Oakwell, but over the moon at the Clachnacuddin win. A team that I picked solely on the day had won me a modest £35.36. Now, Barnsley are my first team. Aldershot are my second team, after a win of theirs once netted me £350. Clachnacuddin are now my adopted third team, after their heroics at the hands of Formantine. Football is a wonderful game, but made even more wonderful thanks to Clachnacuddin Football Club.
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