By AD
February 6 2011

A new year and renewed hope – can City keep in and around the play-offs and can I still keep on making decent money from betting on the opposition? At this stage in proceedings I’m about £90 up and with next year’s season ticket prices being revealed I’m even starting to wonder if I’d even be able to see promotion and use the profits to buy the season ticket. No-one could be that jammy, could they?

Ipswich Town (H) – Drew 1-1

ODDS: Ipswich win 12/5, Draw 12/5

MATCH RETURN: £1.00 up

CUMULATIVE RETURN: £91.37 up

MOOD: A bit unhappy. The result was probably fair, and City stopped the run of defeats and I didn’t lose any money, but now having gone 4 games without a win, the Sky Blues need a victory soon in order to keep up.  

Barnsley (A) - Lost 2-1

ODDS: Barnsley win 13/10, Draw 9/4

MATCH RETURN: £14.75 up

CUMULATIVE RETURN: £106.12 up

MOOD: Unhappy. The winless run continues against a team City traditionally do well against. Other teams are catching up after playing their games in hand and Coventry really need to get any kind of win. I’m over £100 up now, so I can afford a few wins to get that momentum going again.   

Crystal Palace (H) – Won 2-1

ODDS: Palace win 10/3, Draw 5/2

MATCH RETURN: £10.00 down

CUMULATIVE RETURN: £96.12 up

MOOD: That’s more like it. City ditch the long ball to try and play a bit of football and we get a win. A shame only 8,000 people saw it. Second half wasn’t so great, as AB appeared to be unhappy with the team playing football and Palace got back into the game a bit, but overall City deserved it. But can we take this into the league… 

Sheffield United (H) – Drew 0-0

ODDS: Sheffield win 12/5, Draw 12/5

MATCH RETURN: £1.00 up

CUMULATIVE RETURN: £97.12 up

MOOD: Flabbergasted. Mickey Adams’ return heralded one of the most one sided games ever seen. 21 shots, 17 corners and not a single goal to show for it. City again opted to play football and looked good for it, but an inability to put the ball in the net costs us. I’d have much rather lost my money today and seen Sheffield get the absolute drubbing they deserved.  

QPR (A) – Lost 2-1

ODDS: QPR win 3/5, Draw 3/1

MATCH RETURN: £9.50 up

CUMULATIVE RETURN: £106.62 up

MOOD: Worried. After six league games without a win and playing the league leaders they were obviously going to be the favourites. City gave their hosts a game, but once again gave too much respect to QPR’s creative players and paid the price. Only making £10 really isn’t enough to lose the positives gained from the two previous performances.  

Birmingham City (A) – Lost 3-2

ODDS: Brum win 6/7, Draw 27/10

MATCH RETURN: £11.43 up

CUMULATIVE RETURN: £118.05 up

MOOD: Disappointed. I shouldn’t be – Birmingham are a Premier League team, so had to be favourites, but after taking a (probably undeserved) 2-0 lead it beggars belief that even a team like Coventry couldn’t close the game out, with Birmingham managing to turn it around with a good 20 minutes to spare. AB accused the players of going too all-out against their near neighbours, but City hardly had a shot in the second half.  

2010 seems a long, long time ago now, with City out of the cup and failure to win for eight league games dropping them to 13th. If this run goes on rather than looking to use the profits on a season ticket I’ll be looking on it as a pension fund.