Joy for punters as EFL favourites deliver

The opening day of the season was one for bookmakers to forget as just two of the nine teams to go off at odds-on in their opening Sky Bet Football League clashes failed to win.

West Brom, relegated to the Sky Bet Championship last year, were the shortest of the lot at 5-11 but they failed to beat relegation second-favourites Bolton at the Hawthorns as they lost 2-1.

In League Two, Cheltenham were the hotshots who failed as they slipped to a late goal at home to Crawley but several other late strikes went the way of punters.

Relegated Bury grabbed a late winner at home to Yeovil in their League Two clash - the Glovers had been reduced to nine men - while there was drama at the County Ground where Michael Doughty netted two injury-time penalties for Swindon to earn them a 3-2 win over National League champions Macclesfield.

The bookies were also hit late on in the early League One TV game when ante-post favourites Sunderland beat Charlton with a Lynden Gooch header deep into added time. The Black Cats are still available at 3-1.

Among the big-priced winners in League One were Gillingham (9-4), Rochdale (5-2), Scunthorpe (23-10), AFC Wimbledon (13-5) and Doncaster (9-4).

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