The lads return for a look ahead to Grand National weekend and QPR's trip to sunny Scunthorpe.

Brian Power

The Grand National takes places this week and the lottery of fighting your way through the once a year punters at the bookies trying to place their £1 e/w bets. The advice I would give is shop around for a price and take it. Also if you are backing each way check how many places they are paying out on. Paddy Power is paying on the first five where other high street establishments are paying out on four.

Ballabriggs is trained by Donald McCain Jnr whose father Ginger trained the legendary Red Rum so they should know how to get a horse right for the occasion. Ballabriggs is a good jumper who stays and this is always a good combination in the race.

Also on the Aintree card Binocular makes a return to the racecourse after his withdrawal at Cheltenham due to a foreign substance in his blood stream. I fancied him for Cheltenham and see no reason to change my mind.

The final selection on the horses is Bold Sir Brian in the 1.45. I am not selecting just for the name although if certain persons would like to start call me Sir that would be nice. Our selection won at Kelso in March at odds of 20/1 and should give a good run for the cash.

The push for promotion heads to Scunthorpe and Barnsley this week and I am going to swerve the Barnsley game as I don’t know what the odds will be and I think this could be a tricky game. There are rumours of Routledge not playing on Saturday but if he is then the 10/1 at Coral on him being first scorer are worth a punt as he is 6/1 elsewhere. I fancy us to win but think we may concede so will go for a 4- 1 win at 33/1.

The Football this week throws up a couple of nice prices, the 3/1 for Birmingham to win at Blackburn is tempting along with the Baggies to win at Sunderland and I have gone for a double on these. Elsewhere Bristol City who have improved since the return of Nicky Maynard (who I put down on our list of potential targets this summer) head to Barnsley, Dagenham who are in decent form play Notts County minus my mate Paul Ince, Barnet with Mad Dog in charge should see off Crewe and league Leaders Chesterfield head to Hereford. These make up my normal trebles and acca this week.

For the weekend:

4.15 £10 win Ballabriggs 14/1

1.45 £2.50 e/w Bold Sir Brian

2.50 £10 Binocular

Scunthorpe V QPR

£7.50 Routledge 10/1 Coral

£2.50 QPR to win 4-1 33/1

£2 trebles and £2 acca

Bristol City 7/4

Chesterfield 11/10

Dagenham 11/10

Barnet 6/4

£5 double WBA 11/4

Birmingham 3/1

Andy Hillman

It would appear that quite a few people are cursing Agyemang this week after he blazed over the bar with the goal at his mercy on Monday night, thus denying them a payout on a 4-0 correct score (20/1 if memory serves…) Me? I quietly said thank you as my 3-0 prediction held up, by the narrowest of margins - it should have been five or six in hindsight. That netted me nearly £80, coupled with a slight profit on laying Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool (and Man U had to come from 2 down to win…) offsets other losses elsewhere for a weekly profit of £53.75, and back into 3 figures for the season. Is it too late to catch Brian?

So, this week, away at sunny Scunny. It’s top vs. bottom. It’s the best away record in the league against the worst home record in the league it’s one of the three games that could secure us promotion whilst we wait for the FA to decide whatever it is they’ve got to decide. For me, this is a nailed on away win, but we’re massively odds on for the win, so there’s no value there. instead, I’m going to keep with the same two scorecasts that I used against Sheffield United - 2-0 and 3-0, available at 27/4 and 12/1 respectively, with BWin and Skybet.

Elsewhere, it’s the Grand National on Sunday, which races conveniently just after we kick off the second half in Scunny. Now I normally leave the horse racing tipping (fairly successfully I might add…) to Brian, and the National is more or less a complete crap shoot, and it’s almost impossible to accurately pick the winner. Having said that, it would be rude not to spend a bit of my winnings having a shot in the dark, so I’ve gone for 3 horses that one of the betting guides use has tipped - Niche Market @ 25/1, Always Waining @ 110/1(what sort of price is that for a tip?!) and State of Play @ 38/1. Will go each way on all three of them and hope for a place somewhere…

Finally my weekend multiple, and only a fourfold this week, with surprisingly good odds - Bournemouth, Cardiff, Man U and QPR - £10 is worth £85.80, with the bulk of that being increased by Cardiff being 11/8 to beat Doncaster, which is almost worth a bet on its own to be honest!

For The Weekend:

Scunthorpe vs. QPR - correct score 0-2 - £7.50 @ 27/4 (Bwin)

Scunthorpe vs. QPR - correct score 0-3 - £7.50 @12/1 (Skybet)

Grand National:

Niche Market - £2.50 e/w @ 25/1 (Betfair)

Always Waining - £2.50 e/w @ 110/1 (Betfair)

State of Play - £2.50 e/w @ 38/1 (Betfair)

Fourfold multiple - Bournemouth, Cardiff, Man U and QPR £10 @ 8.58 (Betfair)

Photo: Action Images

Jeff added 21:44 - Apr 8 i SAID i was rubbish at horse betting - Always Waining isn't even running in the national tomorrow - he ran (and won) today!
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