BILLY BUNTER

Weblog: The football punter

Little can ease the north-west misery

IT'S a miserable time to be one of the north-west's less illustrious top-flight clubs.

Wigan, Blackburn and Bolton occupy the bottom three slots in the Premier League and have conceded 32 goals between them.
I want to blame this situation on Manchester City, for sucking all the talent out of Manchester outskirts, or something. But sickened as I am by their brash cash, I can't, because it just comes down torubbish defending.

And though this sounds mean and illogical (because it is) I'm sort of glad, after what Preston put me through at the weekend. Any pain to footballers playing in that region of the country, even if it's for a different club, is fine by me.

Preston, on a seven-match winning run, were absolute bankers to beat Leyton Orient, but contrived to squander a 1-0 lead and suffer defeat.

Usually I'm a battle-hardened punting machine who is able to move on from a losing bet quickly, but not even the unexpected sunshine could lighten my mood at the weekend and now I'm coming to terms with the fact that there is only JPT and non-league action this week, followed by a tricky international coupon.

Like a battered footy team I want to get straight back into action and prove what I'm capable of, but I can't help feeling like the JPT isn't the best stage for me to strut my stuff.

Maybe I'll try to lay my demons to rest by working out who out of Phil Jevons and Lewis Alessandra I'd expect to make the bigger impact for Morecambe against Preston. Maybe I'll look into the younger players who will possibly play for PNE, in an attempt to fathom whether they will be able step up. Maybe I'll call Phil Brown and ask him if perhaps he wasn't bothered about the Orient game but is instead getting his side bang up for this one.

Or maybe I'll clean out the shed while the weather's still nice.