BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

Ignoring the formbook
in search of scorers

Myracing-mad mate is always banging on about how the form of a certain race is working out and I don’t think he’d be that impressed by last season’s Premier League Golden Boot.

Cast your mind back to May, when the happy pair of Carlos Tevez – now refusing to even step on the pitch because grass makes him homesick or something – and Dimitar Berbatov – last spotted playing at centre-back against Leeds – shared the top-goalscorer spoils.

It can’t be a coincidence so my first-goalscorer yankee this weekend will definitely not include Robin van Persie (3rd last term), Darren Bent (4th) and the motley gang of Peter Odemwingie, Andy Carroll, DJ Campbell, Dirk Kuyt, Florent Malouda, Rafael van der Vaart and Javier Hernandez, who finished level on 13 goals.

Instead I’ll be pinning my hopes on Preston’s strikers – North End travel to bottom club Leyton Orient in League One and if there aren’t goals in this game, I’ll give up betting. On games between Orient and Preston. That take place on the first of the month. How’s that for a promise?

Preston’s last four league matches have produced 21 goals – they’ve scored most of them, by the way – so I’m backing Phil Brown’s boys to do the business in an east London cracker.