There is nothing our football punters love more than a cheeky fiver flutter on the weekend’s games and for one of them in Co Donegal it was one hell of a couple of days.
Over €12,000 hit their account on Sunday night, but you’d have to say our winner’s nerves must have been shot at the end of it as some very late drama landed the loot.
After placing a €5 stake on a 10-fold accumulator for the weekend’s ties in the Premier League, the Championship and La Liga, our crafty customer must have felt like they had put one in the top corner themselves at the end of it all.
Let’s tell you how the winnings were netted.
Things got off to a fair start on Saturday in our victor’s accumulator as bets on Brentford to beat the handicap against Wigan, Brighton to beat Norwich, Arsenal to win at Wolves, Manchester United defeating Bournemouth with both sides finding the net and Leicester to defeat Crystal Palace all came in with the minimum of fuss.
However, it was what looked to be one of the safest beats on paper before the games kicked off that gave our winner the most trouble. Championship high-flyers Fulham looked a sure thing at home to a Birmingham side who hadn’t managed to win a league game in the previous nine attempts, before arriving at Craven Cottage.
However, it looked for all the world that the game would end in a stalemate as six added minutes were announced at the end of normal time. Thankfully, for our victor’s sake Joshua Onomah latched onto Harrison Reed’s pass to secure victory for the Cottagers with the only goal of the game in the 95th minute.
With five games down, the accumulator moved onto Sunday for it’s remaining punts and again it looked like easy work as bets on Real Madrid to see off Athletic Bilbao, along with Newcastle and West Ham both scoring were all correctly called.
But, there was more tension waiting just around the corner as our customer needed Swansea to defeat Sheffield Wednesday with both teams scoring in the Championship.
The result part of the bet was safe as The Swans led 2-0 in injury time thanks to goals from Rhian Brewster and Andre Ayew, but our punter still needed The Owls to find the net to secure the ninth leg of the incredible accumulator.
Luckily, it was big Atdhe Nuhiu who came to the rescue when all seemed lost by using all of his 6 foot 6 inch frame to get on the end of Jacob Murphy’s cross and power a header past the Swansea goalkeeper in the 94th minute to keep our winner’s dream alive.
Finally, the acca needed Barcelona to win away at Villareal, with both teams scoring, to secure a whopping payout. A Pau Torres own goal gave Barca the perfect start after just three minutes, but Gerard Moreno equalised for the home side just 11 minutes later.
With both teams to score safely boxed off, our plucky punter just needed Barcelona to grab victory to be laughing all the way to the bank and they duly delivered the goods thanks to goals from Luis Suarez, Antoine Griezmann and Ansu Fati to secure a 4-1 success at the Estadio del la Ceramica.
After starting out with just a fiver stake on an accumulator, our winner booted Paddy Power up the behind harder than an Undertaker chokeslam to land €12,134.
Even if there was a bit of luck involved, we’ll tip our cap to that one! Well played.
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