BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

Hit the bullseye with a bet on Stoke

STOKE is the centre of the darting universe with so many quality arrers aces based in the Potteries but never mind the terrific tungsten action from the Ally Pally - I’m aiming to hit the bullseye by backing City to smash Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday.

The darts has been keeping me going during this long drought of no football to bet on.

I did my dosh on Kevin Painter to beat Adrian Lewis - Jackpot easily brushed aside the Artist on Thursday - but I will be going back in on Michael van Gerwen to eliminate the defending champion in Saturday’s mouth-watering (with beer obviously) quarter-final.

That’ll be a blow to the Stokies but before that the football team can put a smile on the faces of all City supporters with a win over Southampton.

I don’t understand why Stoke are so big to take three points in this one. They are unbeaten in 16 at the Britannia, sit eighth in the table on 28 points and so what if Tony Pulis decides to put substance before style?

Southampton are certainly not going to enjoy the long balls being aimed at them, particularly with three dodgy keepers on the books. It is hard to know who is their worst cat between Kelvin Davis, Artur Boruc and Paulo Gazzaniga and Soton must be the only side in the Premier League who would happily swap for Manchester United’s two rick-a-minute goalies!

Saints could have all of them between the sticks and still get stuffed and I’m not sure the visitors will score with Stoke having one of Europe’s best defences.

As Andre Villas-Boas mentioned the other day: "Aesthetics can differ. You can interpret their game in one way and I can do it in another, but all of us respect it - because it is successful for Stoke.”

I would have said exactly the same thing. If only I knew what aesthetics meant.