Spectre of Stead looms over QPR — betting

LFW’s betting columnist Andy Hillman fancies QPR to make it three wins in three at Huddersfield on Saturday, but not before an old foe has reared his goal scoring head once more.

Well, it would appear that my fortunes are inversely linked to QPR’s - when we win, I don’t, and vice versa. My NAP of Forest coming in ensured that it wasn’t a complete blank, but Millwall let me and a lot of other people down on the opening day of the season - Kudos to thorpebankr who predicted this in the comments on the article, and Clive, who in a rare act of prescience called it correctly in the pub pre-match.

This Week

Huddersfield vs QPR - QPR to win, Both Teams to Score @ 18/5

I’m not quite jumping on the ‘we’ve won two on the bounce, we’re going to win EVERYTHING!!!’ bandwagon just yet, but winning does breed confidence. An early (any!) away win will be a massive indicator of what sort of QPR we’re going to see here, and with our strikers actually scoring goals this season (apparently this happens all the time at other clubs...) we could win again here. We’ll have to score at least twice though, because...

Huddersfield vs QPR - Jon Stead to score anytime @ 15/4

Jon Chuffing Stead. Has scored 78 career goals according to Wikipedia, and by my reckoning 77 have come against us. In fact it's six in his last six games against the R's, which is bad enough. He even scored from 35 yards against us for Bristol City in our promotion year. He may play second fiddle to James Vaughan this season, but on Saturday he’ll come off the bench in the 80th minute, and score in the 81st.

NAP of the Week - Bordeaux vs Monaco - Monaco to win @ 6/4

Monaco, fresh from spending a Brazillian pounds over the summer on Falcao, James Rodriguez, Moutinho, Toulahan, Carvalho, Abidal and about a dozen others are 6/4 against an average Bordeaux side in an average league (big two apart). 6/4 looks massive to me.

Let’s all Laugh at Coventry - Coventy City vs Bristol City - Bristol City to win @ 7/5

Coventry will play their first home game against Bristol City in Northampton amid a mass boycott from the fans - only 400 home tickets sold so far. Against a backdrop of such uncertainty, Bristol City @ 7/5 could be an absolute steal.

Long shot - Charity shield - Man Utd vs Wigan - Wigan to win @ 12/1

Is that such a ridiculous bet? Wigan already played (and won a game) and looking motivated, Man Utd not kicked a ball in anger, awful pre-season, Rooney sulking, Moyes yet to stamp his authority on the team - one Manchester side has already been caught out at Wembley by Wigan, can they do the double? At 12/1 it’s worth a couple of quid to find out...

As always, if you have any abuse, recommendations or observations, please feel free to share in the comments below. Cheers all.

Winners so far:

NAP of the Week - Forest to beat Huddersfield @ 5/6 — 02/08/13

Tweet @andy_hillman

Pictures — Acton Images

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