BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

Hendry news won't make me lose focus on football

I’VE got an FA Cup final coming up, the last rites of a blinding titlerace plus the small matter of the Champions League final and then I hear that Stephen Hendry’s packed it in.

How’s a man supposed to stay focused confronted by that magnitude of bombshell.

Couple of things to stir the punting juices on Thursday.

The only footy north of the border is Celtic against St Johnstone which gives us another chance to marvel at mild-mannered Mr Lennon in the home technical area. Unless, of course, he’s banned which he usually is.

Clocked a bit of footage on the news of a load of young kids in Celtic shirts serenading Lennon with a bit of song and dance in one of those lovely, light-hearted momentsfor which the Celtic chief is famed.

Iwas surprised quite how close the wide-eyed youngsters got to him – clearly they haven’t studied videos of that nice Mr Lennon getting up close and personal with Ally McCoist, ref Euan Norris and one or two others. It bites, kids! Keep at arm’s length!

Anyway,Celtic will win with or without a rant or two from the flame-haired one and I can concentrate instead on looking for an edge this weekend.

Cardiff against West Ham – now that’s a far tastier betting heat. Cardiff have usually set the pace and faded dramatically by now so hats off to them for persevering and getting into the play-offs.

Naturally it will all end in tears so I’m on West Ham to qualify and us all left to wonder how on earth Sam Allardyce was overlooked for the England job.