Ian Wilkerson: Backing little to happen is not an own goal

Austria's Max Wober does the business for no-goalscorer backers against FranceCredit: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista

It has taken me more than 51 years but I have finally discovered a golden rule for summer tournaments.

If you have got two things to do and one of them is to watch England at a World Cup or European Championship, do the other thing.

I came across this purely by chance. I booked to do a 10km race on Thursday night a few weeks ago without consulting my wallchart, but after initial frustration at a wasted entry fee and hovering over the cancel button, I thought I’d try to make the best of it.

The race didn't start until the evening. I could watch the first half and drive to the venue on empty roads while listening to the second 45 minutes on the radio.

It seems to have been an inspired decision, but there was something else I missed out on which was a grave disappointment.

It came in the Spain v Italy game and had me thinking about the golden rules of football betting and how we have to bear them in mind all the time.

Like these:

You back the price when it represents good value, not the team you think are going to win regardless of the odds.

Don’t read too much into one-match form. If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

You’re educated people, you know the drill. Anyway, one of the classics is: don’t back a 0-0 correct score, back no goalscorer.

The pearl of wisdom here is that the bet wins if the game finishes goalless, but will also be successful should any goal be scored in the wrong net.

It turns out that this summer we have had a couple of occasions when it would have proved priceless advice as not only was Thursday’s huge clash settled by a single og, but so was France’s 1-0 victory over Austria on Monday, following Max Wober’s deft header past his own goalkeeper in Dusseldorf.

I’m convinced it hasn’t happened in a big match for donkey’s years. The only one I can remember off the top of my head was England’s opening game of the 2006 World Cup against Paraguay when the unfortunate Carlos Gamarra flicked home David Beckham’s free kick for a 1-0 win.

Coincidentally - and sorry, Alanis Morrisette fans, not ironically - the Three Lions served up a lot of dross in the following 87 minutes at the Deutsche Bank Arena in Frankfurt on that occasion, just as they did at the same venue against the Danes 18 years later.

So maybe we can act on that other great impulse - the punter’s hunch. Perhaps there is something in the air in the western half of Germany.

It’s been a cracking tournament on the whole, but we can surely assume the brakes will be slammed on in the knockout stages.

So I’ll think about checking out those no-goalscorer prices and look forward to cheering every misplaced pass, each shot into the crowd and those thrilling ball-retention episodes in injury-time. And, of course, those own goals that keep mounting up.

There could still be pleasure to be gained from dull football matches. It might just get me through watching England's next game.