Bookies respect Latics’ bid for date at Wembley

SPORTS BETTING:

ATHLETIC have been improving steadily in recent weeks — and that progress has not gone unnoticed by the bookies.

Paul Dickov’s men have been cut to 5-1 to finish in the top six in npower League One, which would earn them a place in the promotion play-offs.

Some Latics punters may think those odds are quite attractive given the sied’s current form — and for those with an even more optimistic outlook, how about 33-1 for the boys In blue to gain promotion?

I suspect one or two of the backroom staff at Boundary Park might fancy a couple of quid on that.

Perhaps a more realistic goal for Latics is success in the Johnstone’s Paint Trophy. Having been drawn at home to Bradford and only two successful fixtures away from a place in the final at Wembley, Athletic clearly have a great chance of lifting a trophy this season and the 5-1 on offer about them doing so is perfectly fair.

Preston are the favourites at 3-1, followed by Brentford at 4s. These two teams are respective favourites for the Northern and Southern sections, with the winners of each meeting at Wembley.

Athletic are 23-10 to win the Northern final, so that shows you just how close their Wembley dream is to becoming a reality.

Manchester City’s Champions League’s hopes hang by a thread after their 2-1 defeat in Napoli last night. The Blues are out to 28-1 to win the whole shebang with Manchester neighbours United at 12s following their disappointing 2-2 draw at home to Benfica. Meanwhile, City are 8-11 to win the Barclays Premier League title with United at 2-1.

City face a big test at Liverpool on Sunday, but are 6-4 to prevail, with the Mersey giants a rather generous 2-1 and the draw 12-5.



SNOOKER’S first major tournament of the season, the UK Championship, gets under way at York on Saturday week and the bookies simply don’t have a clue who is going to win. They go 7-1 the field, with Mark Selby leading the way ahead of Ronnie O’Sullivan (15-2), John Higgins and Mark Williams (8-1), Neil Robertson (9-1), and Ding Junhui, Judd Trump and Shaun Murphy (12-1).



CYCLING phenomenon Mark Cavendish has been backed down to a miserly 5-4 to win the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year award. Open champion Darren Clarke has drifted to 2-1, while US Open hero Rory McIlroy is out to 9s and world champion distance runner Mo Farah is 10-1. Then it’s 33-1 bar.



WE are no nearer identifying the winner of this year’s X Factor because, from what I can see, there is no outstanding candidate.

Marcus Collins is the marginal favourite at 11-5, just ahead of Little Mix on 9-2. The winner is 1-2 to sing the Christmas Number One.

Harry Judd does not seem to enjoy criticism from the judges on Strictly Come Dancing, so the bookies’ favourite and best dancer in the competition could be vulnerable to an adverse public vote despite his position at the head of the betting market at 6-4.

The popular Jason Donovan is 11-4 second favourite to lift the glitter ball, with the sugary Chelsee Healey 100-30.

As for the ridiculous I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, Mark Wright remains favourite at 9-4, followed by Dougie Poynter at 7-2 and Antony Cotton 9-2. Celebrities? Antony’s a local lad, but I don’t know any of the rest of them.