Spotting The Ball

STAR EVENT: Sheffield United v Yeovil Town
League One Play-Off Semi Final First Leg
TIME: 7.45pm
TV: SKY

DOUBLE LANDED !!!! Yesterday’s recommended bet of Chelsea and Benfica in a double obliged – in the end. It wasn’t looking too rosy at the halftime mark with Chelsea a goal down but in the end they came through to win 3-1 – the same scoreline as Benfica.

Happy days – and we’ve reached the heady heights of three wins in-a-row.

A huge night at Bramall Lane as Sheffield United set out again on the play-off roulette wheel at home to Yeovil in the first leg. At Star Sports we love the play-offs – it’s a bit like safety play in snooker – it gets very tactical when there’s so much at stake. In the ‘regulation’ season Yeovil finished two points higher than Sheffield United but that counts for little in the play-offs.  As we’ve seen so many times they can be cruel and it’s often the teams that just miss out on automatic promotion that bottle it under the pressure.

It’s hard to believe that Sheffield United, a team with a rich history, were in the Premier League as recently as 2006. They were relegated after just one season and took the drop agonisingly on a goal difference of one.

Just heading off on a tangent, we always love a bit of gambling memorabilia here at Star Sports and looking back on a Sheffield newspaper in 1982 we came across the Spot The Ball competition. Amazing how popular this was in its time – kind of a poor mans football pools but there were plenty of people who believed it was a game of skill. Love how the newspaper added the weather “Sunny, dry with blustery north-westerly wind. Ground conditions: Good” to help punters mark their X’s.

We also remember when a newspaper once left the ball on the photo (by mistake, obviously) and STILL got incorrect entries !!

Back to tonight and we are with the Blades, despite a 2-0 defeat at home to Yeovil earlier in the season. A tight match can be expected with Sheffield United just edging it. They are due a change of fortune in the play-offs with with last season’s penalty shootout defeat to Huddersfield in the final still fresh in the memory. Incredibly, they are embarking on their SEVENTH play-off campaign.

Hopefully we’ll be playing spot the ball again tonight – in Yeovil’s net.

STAR FORECAST
(stake between 0.5 and 10 points)
5 point win SHEFFIELD UNITED to beat Yeovil Town

(+5 points Thursday)

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