Dan

Ipswich will deflect one in in the 107th minute and I've no doubt Southampton get two late as well.

Gonna have to get one in for tomorrow but I was genuinely considering Fulham as a big long shot and then Palace / under 4.5 (which has a fantastic chance). It'll win because it's this pissing game and I'm jinxed in it.

Lucas I've not read all of that but what you've put to me is quite telling that you thought you were rubbish. I agreed. I thought we were the better side in the first half and then brilliant for most of the second. I just can't fathom how that can play out. We see that through and I'm talking about probably the best showing under Maresca and a night that gives me confidence we can live in the Premier League without tonnes of work. Yet we lose 3-1. I'm genuinely baffled. I usually have the answers (or so I think) but I truly am stumped here.

There is something seriously psychologically wrong at this club and I can't really explain it. There is an almost inevitability about bottling things. If Leeds had outclassed us tonight I could say fair game, but we have played that game pretty much 90% spot on and still somehow imploded at the end. If it was an isolated incident I could blame the luck of the bounce and deflections and whatnot, but it isn't. The minute they get one, the fans, the players, they just know what follows. There is something psychologically wrong and I really don't see the obvious fix for it.

What will be will be

You've got to hand it to them really. Agree with them or not it's nice to see some principles.

To be fair they looked like they were going down to me. It is a shame to have to abandon it this early but in those situations you have to be decisive and sticking with somebody who is clearly not working isn't the way forward.

Knew the risks. I'm surprised how many actually got through because that was a ridiculously bad set of fixtures. I don't have much luck against Almeria do I?

Managed to get Rotherham at 12/1 to pay out earlier - however made the error of sticking Southampton in as one of the other teams

I didn't even realise it was this season he'd been sacked by Rangers. His collapse has been quite spectacular.

WEEK 29 - USUAL SERVICE WEEK 29 STATS Winning bets: 2/7 Winning selections: 6/13 Weekly forum position: -£16.19 (Ranked 16/29) --- OVERALL STATS Winning bets: 48/193 Winning selections: 164/365 Total forum position: -£416.99 A fairly average week this time out with no substantial wins but enough to keep things semi respectable, particularly compared to some recent weeks, albeit it is still a loss - we've played 29 weeks and we've lost on 19 of them, with myself contributing a remarkable 28 times. @Pyfish makes a return to the league with a win, landing the smallest odds winner of the season on one selection (which came quite close for comfort actually) but padding it out with a good pick in Solanke to score at Newcastle, for a steady 1.5 point win, and just under a £50 gap to second placed @Lucas who came extremely close to taking top spot in spite of this, putting together a pretty ambitious bet builder and as often seems to happen on them, is let down by what appears on the face of it one of the safest legs. A real piss-take. @...Dan returns with a loss having picked two duds in Zwolle and Pau - although looking to the stats tells me Zwolle were victims of a smash and grab. Pau were 2 down quite early on though in what's a fairly low scoring league. @Stan comes mightily close to a good win himself, missing by just one corner on the Sydney Adelaide game while Portsmouth v Reading pays out a home win with over 2 goals being scored. That exact fixture ended 7-4 in a Premier League game in 2007, so it was never in doubt. In-fact Stan and Lucas wins would've taken us to nearly our biggest win of the season. Fine margins. @RandoEFC is the only change in the table this week following a remarkable late turnaround in Holland and then a very safe winner in Rangers and under 5 goals. He leaps ahead of @CaaC (John) who's Monday picks produced a double blank. And as ever, we finish with me losing. This is genuinely embarrassing at this point. How is it even possible to lose 28 times out of 29? For some context, that rate of return implies that I should've been taking bets pretty much at two 5/1 teams per weekend, but I certainly haven't been doing that. Incredible. Absolutely abysmal. As for the bet freeze. On Sky now you have the option to 'freeze' a team when they go ahead so essentially paid out as a winner. You can do this up to five times in a week, the bet must have 5 teams or more in it, and the maximum stake on the acca is £20. But what I've started doing, and have managed to land in my fourth attempt having 'frozen' Bochum to beat Bayern (albeit pointlessly as Bochum ended up winning anyway), is picking four fairly safe picks (easier said than done granted) and then one big outsider to freeze on the off chance that they go ahead at any point in the game. So basically, you are getting the 8/1 odds that Bochum were to win the game changed to 8/1 on Bochum to have the lead at any point during the game. I won £92 from a fiver and I honestly think at the rate you this happens, you're surely going to profit. I've seen people on Twitter winning thousands doing it. Somebody landed Vietnam going ahead against Japan at 125/1 for a little more context, I did it earlier on Moreirense v Sporting, backing Moreirense at 8/1. They lost 0-2 so it didn't matter, but I happened to notice in play, Moreirense were 3/1 to score the first goal at 0-0, so you are basically getting enormously boosted prices - bear in mind the possibility of Moreirense going behind and then ahead again means the 'real' odds are actually probably something like 11/4, and you can get it at 8/1 if you're alert enough to freeze the selection. I've done 7 bets in total, lost 6, won 1, but I'm £57 up. Going to do it with fivers until I get to a few hundred and then up the ante. Will keep you posted how it goes, but I'm convinced there's good money in this.

I read a pretty detailed article on his time at Roma and they had something like the 3rd biggest wage budget in the league yet never once got close to qualifying for the Champions League. But I suppose this is sort of how the game has changed and probably not for the better either - he has tangible success with them but in the league he has underachieved. He's a cup manager now I think. I'm a fan of his and think he's become way too disrespected but it was probably the right time to part ways. Never going to be a popular decision though.

We go there in a fortnight so this is annoying - had that as a banker win under Beale but think under a different manager it's trickier. He's turned out to be a huge dud and frankly an odd bloke.

Extremely unlucky Lucas. Has anyone heard of the SkyBet freeze trick? I've started doing it. Honestly I'm excited at the upside of this. I think it's absolutely mental and I think they're going to end up closing this loophole soon.

Those games fall within separate weeks sadly.

Honestly, how do I never, ever win?

Would be even more sods law if the penalty was the 3rd minute. Anyway mine this weekend, a bit more drab but I'll take Derby (19/20) and Peterborough (19/20) to win. Both are decent prices in my eyes, both have tricky by League One standard home games which is factored into the price but both of their opposition have their own issues going into it so I think it's worth a go. £10 returns £0 £38.03.

1.11 gonna have to dock you £100 if that loses.

Instinctively went to go against whoever Granada or Almeria had and of course, it's each other. I'm gonna play on the edge here because this is quite frankly one of the toughest rounds I've ever seen for what is an opening week. I'm going to go for Granada.

Cheltenham of course have won both games since I picked them.

WEEK 28 - BUST WEEK 28 STATS Winning bets: 0/5 Winning selections: 2/10 Weekly forum position: -£50.00 (Ranked 23/28) --- OVERALL STATS Winning bets: 46/186 Winning selections: 158/352 Total forum position: -£400.81 In a bit of a rush this week but it wasn't a good one. An absolute shocker all round to be honest with 5/5 players losing and only 2 of those even landing a selection. No change in the table. Reminder for this week to anybody intending to play @Pyfish @Lucas @Machado @Storts @...Dan @Stan @CaaC (John) @RandoEFC

Totally slipped on the table. Will get it updated later on.

I'm doing similarly. February so far has been simply the worst month I think I've had if you exclude the draw thing I'm doing (which of course I'm on 0/2 for since throwing them into here). There just seems to be so many trends being bucked.

I do have a record of every table so far so could see what exactly you had. There's so much more luck involved in this than anyone would want to admit. This season has felt particularly tricky - my bad form has stretched to my actual bets now with February looking like the worst month since I've tracked them. But I know of pro-gamblers who are struggling a bit this season. Seems to be so many games that are bucking trends and I don't just mean teams form, I mean high scoring teams games clashes resulting in 1-0s and whatnot. Really has been quite tough of late. A five fold at the lowest price there (5/6) would be around 20/1 yep.