Taking Wee Fiver to softplay has its advantages and disadvantages.
First, the advantages: it's a chance to have a cup of coffee in peace, to catch up with world events, to not answer questions about why there are clouds in the sky, why five follows four in the number sequence or explain for the millionth time why the dinosaurs are extinct, and what exactly 'extinct' means without resorting to the words 'death' 'ceasing to exist' or 'dinosaur heaven'.
The disadvantages spawn mostly from a creature who shall be referred to as 'video game child'. Video game child is a force of nature. He or she, but mostly, he, runs amok at softplay where the mean streets of Mario World become reality. Fellow children (and I may or may not be referring specifically to Wee Fiver here) are The Joker's goons, they exist purely to be smacked or tossed into foam supports.
Video game child cannot be stared out, nor told to stop not least because his first reaction is to run to iPhone dad to inform him about the strange man who keeps looking at him and talking to him. It's not just video game child, though, there's greetin' child, grumpy child, dozy child, sneezy child, sleepy child and the rest of the seven dwarves too.
In short, it's a bit unpredictable. But not quite as unpredictable as gambling on the Sky Bet Championship which, granted, has nothing to do with softplay but can leave one feeling every bit as unhinged by the end of 90 minutes of frantic action. Take Wigan versus Yeovil the other night when a seemingly innocuous match seemed to heading the way of Uwe Rosler's men when five goals in eight closing minutes meant a home banker became a high-scoring draw.
The upside of such uncertainty is that prices are high when other leagues have settled into a more predictable pattern as the season enters its final phase. The flipside is that finding winning bets is much more problematic.
The bet
That said, there is sufficient reason to believe that Leicester, Reading and Burnley, three of the four best away teams in England's second flight can prevail against teams that fall between indifferent and downright awful home form. The dodgiest fixture from a betting perspective is the one at Ewood Park where Blackburn host leaders Leicester. Yet, while Rovers have average home form they have lost three of their last six there, while Leicester, the best team in the division, have won five from six and kept three clean sheets in the process.
Reading take on the league's worst home team in the shape of Birmingham, while Charlton, Burnley's opponents, have had similar struggles at The Valley, although the appointment of Jose Riga might have clouded the picture somewhat - given the 1-0 win secured by the Belgian in his first game in charge in midweek. Nevertheless, this is a high-paying treble on three of the league's standout teams and for that reason alone is worthy of serious consideration. It pays a best priced 10.76/1.
Season's total
A mixed bag last week even if Aberdeen did eventually win the League Cup. It was no good for our purposes yet the treble had already been undone by nine-man Chelsea who, unlike Manchester City at Hull, were unable to overcome the handicap of playing without the full complement at Aston Villa. The total is -£59.53.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article