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THE WEEK ON THE TEES 12-3-08
Luke Raine
After Sunday’s horrendous performance in the Cup, I think most Boro fans will be fed up of reading about and remembering just how bad the Cardiff game was.
I for one want to forget last weekend as quickly as possible but I get the feeling it could take some time.
I do want to put one question to Boro fans though on the back of Sunday’s defeat. Is there really such a gulf in class between The Premier League and The Championship?
Only last week Wayne Rooney claimed that he will never leave England’s top league because, he claimed, it was the best league in the world.
The fact that half of the quarter finalists in The Champions League are English may support that view but there are still flaws with it.
If you look beyond the “Big Four” in The Premier League and discount three or four more sides such as Tottenham Hotspur and Everton, there is desperately little quality. More so, Cardiff showed that teams from the Championship can get the ball down and play good football.
I am not denying that they caught Boro on a good day – we were awful. However, the majority of Boro fans must have been impressed with the way the away side played on Sunday, considering that they are a mid-table side in the division below us.
It makes you wonder if there really is much difference between teams from the second tier of English football and those who are in the middle to lower reaches of The Premier League.
I am not denying the fact that England’s top division is arguably the most exciting league in the world. But from past experiences alone, I have often felt that the excitement has, more often than not, come as a result of two average sides contesting an open football match.
Big money signings and players on big wages can disguise the fact that many Premier League sides aren’t actually that much superior to their Championship counterparts. From the limited number of games I have watched from The Football League this season, I can certainly say that there is a lot more quality in these sides than they are given credit for.
It could also be argued that The Championship is a much more entertaining league because it is so open. Manchester United visit Derby County this weekend and prior to the game, not many sane football fans will be debating about who is going to win.
Compare this with The Championship and you have Bristol City at the top and Colchester at the bottom. In January Colchester went to Ashton Gate and came away with a draw after taking an early lead. When Derby visited The Emirates earlier this season, they were beaten 5-0.
The major talking point to come out of this weekend was the reaction from Sir Alex Ferguson to a big decision going against his United side in the first ten minutes of their quarter final with Portsmouth.
There is no doubting that the barge from Sylvain Distin on Cristiano Ronaldo warranted a penalty. There is also no doubting that it is about time one of the big teams had a big decision go against them, but it would be immature to say that is was simply United and Ronaldo getting their just desserts.
The standard of refereeing in this country is poor and Boro fans can certainly vouch for that over recent times. Considering referees in this country are now professionals, the number of big decisions they are getting wrong is scandalous.
I realise that referees do an extremely difficult job and that at the end of the day they are only human too. However in the last couple of seasons the standard has got worse.
Ferguson was wrong to criticise Martin Atkinson in the way he did but surely he has got a point. There is definitely a problem in that area at the minute and someone at the top needs to do something about it.
I haven’t really focused on Middlesbrough Football Club this week and that is deliberate. The performance on Sunday was abysmal and I felt that writing about it didn’t warrant my time. I can only hope that the team start by putting in a performance tonight at Villa Park which would go a very, very small way towards repaying the supporters.
The only good thing for me to come out of the game was the way Gareth Southgate didn’t blame referee Mike Dean for not spotting a blatant handball in the build up to the opening goal. (Just for the record, it was another basic error from an official.)
It would have been wrong for Southgate to blame defeat on this. I can certainly think of Boro managers in the not so distant past that might have ignored the atrocious performance and focused on one error from an official as being the sole reason that we were now out of the Cup.
I would say that I applaud Southgate for this but after watching the ninety minutes which preceded the comments, it is very hard to do so.
Luke Raine
RETURN TO THE WEEK ON THE TEES INDEX HERE
A GUARANTEED PROFIT OF AT LEAST £41.20 ON PORTSMOUTH v FULHAM
Did you know that it is possible to win money on Sunday afternoon's Premiership clash between Portsmouth v Fulham, whatever the result?
The game kicks off at 3.00pm and we can guarantee you a profit of at least £41.20, whatever the result of the match. All you have to do is follow the simple instructions below and then sit back and enjoy the game. At full-time, you will be at least £41.20 better off, whatever the result of the match.
We must point out that if you want to take this bet, you should do it now because if the odds change, then the figures here will be invalidated. If they have changed, let us know and we will rework the bet for you.
You can still do this if you have a Betfair account but your overall profit will be reduced by £25.00 as you won't receive the £25.00 cashback as an existing account holder.
If you are unsure about this bet, you are most welcome to call us on 01642 223229 and we will help you as much as we can.
We're going to lay out a total of £71.00 on the Portsmouth v Fulham match and we will collect £115.00 if Portsmouth win, £112.20 if Fulham win and £114.13 if it's a draw. That's a minimum profit of 58%, a much higher interest rate than you will get in any high street bank.
Here's how it's done. Just follow these simple instructions.
1. Open an account with Coral. It is really important that you enter the bonus code of CORALTD when prompted. This is to ensure that you receive your bonus.
Open an account with Betfair. It is really important that you enter the promotional code of BFB425 when prompted. This is to ensure that you receive your bonus.
Open an account with Extrabet
 .
This shouldn't take you any longer than a few minutes.
2. Make the following deposits into your new accounts.
Deposit £20.00 into your new Coral account.
Deposit £26.00 into your new Betfair account.
Deposit £25.00 into your Extrabet
account.
3. Now make the following bets.
Place £20.00 on Portsmouth at 3.00 (2/1) with Coral.
Coral will now add a £10.00 bonus to your account. Place this on Portsmouth as well. You will now have £30.00 riding on Portsmouth.
Back the draw with £25.00 at 3.7 (11/4) (or higher if available) with Betfair.
Place £26.00 on Fulham at 2.2 (6/5) with Extrabet .
Extrabet match your first bet up to £25 so you will now have £51.00 riding on Fulham.
The £25.00 matched bet will not show in your account but you can read all about how it works on the Extrabet site. It's the purple box that says '£25 FREE BET FOR NEW CUSTOMERS' on the top right hand side. Click here to visit the Extrabet site.
If you are unsure about placing these bets, please feel free to mail us or call us on 01642 223229 and we will talk you through it, no problem at all. There is no such thing as a stupid question.
You have temporarily laid out a total of £71.00 on the Portsmouth v Fulham match. I stress, temporarily... Now sit back, crack a beer open and enjoy the match.
4. Here's what happens at the end of the game.
If Portsmouth win, you collect £115.00. That's £90.00 from Coral plus a £25.00 cashback from Betfair.
If it's a draw, you collect £114.13. That's £89.13 from Betfair plus a £25.00 cashback from Betfair.
If Fulham win you collect £112.20. That's £87.20 from Extrabet plus a £25.00 cashback from Betfair.
5. This means that the worst case scenario on the Portsmouth v Fulham match is Fulham win and you make £41.20 profit. However, if it is a draw you make £43.13 and if Portsmouth win you make £44.00. That's a minimum profit of 58%, a much better rate of interest that you would get at any high street bank or building society.
6. It is absolutely vital that you click on the links on this page to open the accounts with the two bookies and enter the correct bonus codes or you may not qualify for the bonuses.
Also, before you place your bets, you should check that the odds haven't changed. If they have, let us know by mail or phone us on 01642 223229 and we will rework the bet for you.
Please feel free to contact us or phone us on 01642 223229 if you have any questions at all about this bet and we will help you as much as we can.
Please note that the bonuses are valid for new customers only so if you already have an account with one or more of the bookies we are using, you won't be able to do this. If that is the case, mail us or phone us on 01642 223229 and we'll create an alternative bet for you using different bookies.
This method of betting was used very successfully during the 2006 World Cup and you can read all about how it was done right here.
We guarantee this bet
It's understandable that some people will not believe that it is possible to do this. "What's the catch?" I hear you asking. My answer to that question is that we have been publishing arbitrage bets for four seasons now and literally hundreds of people have profited from following the advice on these pages.
Only twice has our refund guarantee been triggered and that was when we did all the figures wrong and sent refunds out to those who had followed our advice and made a small loss.
Our refund guarantee works like this. If this bet doesn't work like we say it will and you end up out of pocket, we will refund your losses. Simple as that.
That means that you simply cannot lose on this, whatever happens and even if we messed up the numbers.
The only stipulation here is that you must click on the links on this page to be eligible for the refund guarantee, not that you'll be needing to claim anyway. Just enjoy the profit and stay posted for many more of these throughout the season.
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