Forget Good Friday, it was an absolutely belting Friday this week for one lucky Paddy Power customer who correctly picked nine – yes, nine! – results in the holiday afternoon football. While the namby-pamby nonsense of the Premier League enjoyed the extended international break, the Football League was kicking right back into action with a full slate of games at 3pm on Friday.
Our victor used what must have been encyclopedic-like knowledge of the EFL to beat off odds of 2,550/1 and turn just a £20 stake into a whopping total of £51,031. The bonkers bet included three games from the Championship, two from League One and four match-ups from League Two. Let’s tell you how the cash was claimed.
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Our epic journey begins in the Championship where our winner picked QPR to keep their faint Play-Off hopes alive by beating relegation-threatened Coventry City at the Kiyan Price Foundation Stadium. Goals from Chris Willock and Ilias Chair, along with an own goal from Michael Rose, handed the bet the perfect start as The Rs secured a 3-0 home success.
Staying in the second tier and a win for Michael O’Neill’s Stoke away at Bristol City was next on the hitlist. With both sides languishing in mid-table this one really could have gone either way, but our punter made the right call in backing The Potters and they ran out 2-0 winners thanks to strikes either side of half-time from Nick Powell and Steven Fletcher.
Our winner’s last selection in the Championship came at the Vitality Stadium, where home side Bournemouth hosted Middlesbrough. Thankfully for our crafty customer, The Cherries kept the heat on sixth-placed Reading with a 3-1 success over Neil Warnock’s side.
A move down the tiers was next up, and it was in League One where the biggest drama on the docket happened. The fingernail biting surely started for our winner as time was running short at Highbury Stadium where Fleetwood Town and Peterborough Town remained locked at 0-0. Those nerves were eased slightly though as Jonson Harris-Clarke banged home an 89th minute free-kick to keep The Posh in the automatic promotion places.
Though those worries were only calmed a little bit because Crewe Alexandra were level at 1-1 with Hull City as the game ticked into injury time. With every other selection on the betslip up, our winner needed a Tigers win to land the loot.
But they fell behind in the second half as Crewe’s Chris Porter opened the scoring from the penalty spot. Then the fightback began, as Northern Ireland striker equalled matters with a spot-kick of his own in the 71st minute, however all must have seen lost as the game headed into added time.
Former Leeds United man Mallik Wilks was not going to let our winner down though as his strike from the right-hand side of the box crashed off the post and into the net to keep Hull top of the table, sending our customer into dreamland as a result.
There wasn’t much to write home about in the League Two fixtures as away wins for Leyton Orient and Stevenage over Mansfield and Oldham respectively brought our punter to closer to home. The beautiful bet was then rounded out by Cambridge beating Morecambe 2-1 at the Abbey Stadium and Plymouth securing a 1-0 success at Home Park against AFC Wimbledon.
All that meant a stunning total of £51,031 was on its way into our customer’s account and all we can do is welcome our victor into our much-coveted Punting Hall of Fame! Not bad for a Friday flutter, eh?
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