A selection of betting tips and ideas of where to look for value in the weekend markets ahead of QPR's weekend trip to Plymouth Argyle.

You may have noticed that last week’s column was slightly truncated, featured only one pundit and missed out the running totals. You may also have noticed it was posted on Saturday lunch time rather than Friday evening as normal. That’s because a certain website editor who shall remain nameless had his office Christmas party on Friday night which involved, later in the evening, falling out of passport photo booth at Derby railway station and taking the skin off the end of his nose and later still walking around Sheffield for three hours asking passers by where he lived. Consequently much of Saturday morning was spent in the bathroom doing bathroom things and in the end he just whacked up whatever copy he had and called it a day. Martin Rowlands’ stunning goal certainly improved the situation in the evening.

Anyway I’m safely tucked up with a glass of whiskey and Film Four this Friday night ahead of an early start to get down to Home Park tomorrow. So I can tell you that we have a winner to report – Brian backed that funny talking lad from Eastenders to win the Jungle programme at 4/1 a few weeks back and gets’ £37.50 for his troubles leaving his account £386 overdrawn.

The last Challenger bets were placed before the Palace game and Eastwood’s win against Wycombe in the FA Cup netted £35 for the kitty, still a £15 loss but a -£131.89 account balance is limiting the damage going into a credit crunch affected Christmas.

Brian Power
It is strange you spend hours and hours going through league tables and racing pages studying form to try and pick up a winner but to no avail but if you pick out the ginger ex soap star in a TV Reality show you get a winner. With this in mind I think we will be looking at flipping a coin in the Power household from now on or stick to TV shows betting. With this in mind we have the Sports Personality of the Year this weekend and we will go for the top three to be Lewis Hamilton, Rebecca Adlington and Chris Hoy in any order that pays 9/2 with Skybet.

The R’s travel down to Plymouth and we are looking for that illusive away goal. To put it in simple terms the last time we scored away from Woolworths was a thriving company, you could trust Financial Institutions with your cash and Kerry Katonna had just won Mum of the Year. Yes it was that long ago. I will go for a first goal/last goal with Kasper Gorkss at 33/1.

With the Xmas period almost here it is a very busy time so we will pick out our Welsh Grand National pick early doors and we will have a £10 on last years winner Miko de Beacheune at 8/1. And our normal footie bet – Good Luck

For the weekend:
QPR V Plymouth Gorkss 1st goal £5 33/1 Last Goal £5 33/1
Rebecca Adlington, Chris Hoy and Lewis Hamilton to be top 3 in Sports Personality of the Year £15 9/2 Skybet
Welsh Grand National Chepstow £10 Miko de Beacheune 8/1 general
£2.50 trebles £2.50 acca
Darlington 11/8
Millwall 13/8
Huddersfield 16/5
Birmingham 11/8

The Challenger
Well I’ve finished chundering, and I’m not doing too bad at this betting lark either with winners on my last three outings. I’m contradicting myself in the QPR game this week – I always back Damion Stewart for the first and last goals and will do so again but with our scoring form the way it is at the moment it’s impossible to ignore the 0-0 draw at 8/1 in my opinion. I won money backing against Arsenal a few weeks ago at Man City and I will be doing so again this weekend – they just never seem to convince away from home at the moment, especially in the cold wastes of Middlesbrough after a European away game. Tottenham are in decent form and may take a point from Man Utd.

For the weekend:
Damion Stewart to score first/last, £5 on each both at 28/1
£10 on QPR and Plymouth to draw 0-0 at 8/1
£10 on Boro to beat Arsenal at 7/2
£10 on Spurs to draw with man Utd at 5/2
£10 on Burnley, Palace, Reading and Leeds to win returns £60.80
All prices with Bet 365

Photo: Action Images

Queens Park Rangers Polls