On the road

The Horns aren't doing too bad in Yorkshire. A 6-1 win at Elland Road on 10th of this month was followed up with a 4-1 win at Hillsborough tonight. We've gone undefeated in the month and moved right up to 8th. Not going too bad: the team seems to have gelled.

Crashing out

The Pozzo's football team was involved in big cup action today at home. That was Udinese in the Champions League. Their English team was involved at a slightly lower level, fielding a second string at home to Bradford in the Capital One Cup. I glimpsed at the text service on the BBC a couple of times and left it when we went 1-0 up in the 70th minute. When I looked again, we'd let in two and lost to League Two opposition.
The eternal excuse is that we are concentrating on the league. With six points from the first three games, we've had a good start (beat Palace away, lost at home to Ipswich and beat Birmingham). We're in fifth, three teams are unbeaten and Blackpool have won three out of three. At the other end, Palace and Peterborough are yet to get off the mark. Our real aim is for new manager Gianfranco Zola to take us higher than the eighth that the sacked ex-manager Sean Dyche took us to last season. Playoffs would be nice.

New owners at the Vic

The deal has not been done but it looks likely that the Pozzos, who own Granada in la Liga and Udinese in Seria A, will buy the Horns from Laurence Bassini, who is hardly a hit amongst fans. The Pozzo family have money and football pedigree. I foresee taking my son to Premiership games before too long.

Put your money where your mouth is

I do enjoy a gamble and wrote about my biggest win before on this blog more than once. My favourite win, however, was telling an ex-colleague she was wrong when she said she'd been to the capital of Kazakhstan and winning £2 when - to her surprise - she discovered it had been moved from Almaty to Astana after she'd visited.
I've placed a few bets during Euro 2012, where, after taking 7 points out of 9 in the group stage "England unexpectedly expect" according to a Guardian headline. I had money on Danny Welbeck to score against Sweden but my biggest win so far was £11.78 on Rooney to score and England to beat Ukraine at 4/1 with William Hill. Watched the match with Faisel, Allen and Ruben at the Garage, Islington and celebrated the surprise of avoiding Spain in the quarter-finals.
France have that pleasure. Some of my quarter-final bets are made. I bet £20 on Portugal and Germany to win and got in-play evens on Portugal today so won a tenner from a late Ronaldo goal (and my double is still alive). I also put a "cheeky" fiver on Spain v France and England v Italy to both be draws at 90 mins. 8.57/1, so worth a flutter.

My biggest loss, incidentally, came with 2 bets on Russia when they lost 1-0 to Greece and went out of the competition. I'm hoping Greece don't do the double over me against the Germans tomorrow.

2011-2012

Despite being in the country for the entire season, I never got to see the Horns this year. They finished well: we didn't lose in March, winning at Bristol City and Leeds and beating Ipswich with a draw in that month and four in May, as well as a first defeat at home to Blackpool, who made the play-offs, before finishing with a win over Middlesbrough, who finished 7th. The Golden Boys ended in 11th, four positions higher than I'd imagined was possible. Next season, I will get there and hopefully take my son to his first game(s).
Reading were champions and Southampton join them in the Premiership, achieving consecutive promotions, while West Ham, who looked favourites to return for so long, play Cardiff. Blackpool have Birmingham to deal with.
Chelsea beat Barcelona to get to the Champions League final against Bayern in Munich, meaning the expected all-Spanish affair never materialised. Tottenham still look a possibility for the fourth CL place but a Chelsea victory on May 19th would render Spurs' blistering first half of the season meaningless. Their recent blips, if such a prolonged period of failure can be termed such, was said by some to be the unsettling effect of the imminent departure of their manager for the England post vacated by Capello over the (ahem - allegedly) racist Terry's treatment. The appointment of Roy Hodgson to lead the national team to the Euros over tax-dodging Redknapp means the latter can prove himself all over again in the Premiership next year.

Seven out of nine

There have been several games since I posted last but coming from behind to beat Burnley at the Vic, followed by a draw at second-placed West Ham and a victory at Derby's Pride Park has done wonders for our league position. One of our loanees - Alex Kacaniklic from Fulham (the other is ManU's  Tomasz Kuszczak) - got assists for both goals on Saturday and scored the week before that. We've now reached a giddy 14th and another season's safety has been ensured.

Eternally eighteenth

Despite defeat at home last week and a 3-0 beating at St Andrews yesterday, WFC are still in 18th. With the two teams directly above us losing too, we haven't slid backwards but ground has been made below us with Bristol City and Millwall both notching up victories.Darius Henderson got his second consecutive hat-trick for the Lions at Bansley. I'd have him back.

Lagging behind

I stuck a tenner on us today, fancying us to beat a Reading side that are up in the playoff positions. The match was live on Sky Sports 2 so I was able to stream it through EPL site (a bit laggy, but ok). The Horns scored first when Cummings stabbed into his own goal but Reading were back in it before half time and looked likely to get the late goal that the commentator started tempting fate about. Their sub came on and sunk us.

The fourth round tie is on the Friday and you have to have been to another game this season to have a chance of getting ONE ticket. Luckily - I suppose - Virgin gave us a month's free ESPN and they are screening it so I'll be watching a second live match on a screen at home this month. It won't be the feed that lags in that match.

Spurs come a-calling

Watford's unbeaten run came to an end in the first game of the year. They'd beaten Darlington 4-1 at the Vic on NYE (Sordell got 2) but went down 2-0 at Fratton Park a couple of days later. They are currently 18th and have been there and about since October. With the league pretty tight, a winning run could put them right up there but it doesn't look likely (from this armchair, anyway).
On Saturday, the Horns battered Bradford 4-2 in the cup third round and the following day were drawn home again to slightly bigger opposition. Tottenham - flying high in 3rd in the Premiership - come calling on the 28th January and I am hoping to be there for my first game since April. COYH!