Three bets to speak of this weekend:

Burnley vs Portsmouth – When something major is happening off the pitch, such as a new manager coming in, or a big takeover, I usually try to stay away from any betting involving that team. With Portsmouth entering administration today and being almost certainly doomed to life in the Championship next season – how will they respond? Now that the pressure is essentially off, will they come out with a nothing to lose attitude, or will the last bit of fight they had in them have seeped away along with the 9 points? I certainly don’t think evens is a bad price on a Burnley side who are still very much in the fight for survival, and are relying on their home form to keep them from joining Pompey next season.

Burnley win @ 2.00 with Bet365 – 4 points (Returned 0)

Liverpool vs Blackburn Rovers – Speaking of unpredictable, who knows which Liverpool team will show up this weekend? They only have a 3 day break since playing in Romania on Thursday night, although they had a decent game out there. Blackburn come off the back of a solid 3-0 home win and have had a week to recover, although they will be without captain Nelsen who is out with a knee injury. There’s every chance Liverpool will take this one down 1-0 or 2-0, but I think 1.36 is a horribly short price to be backing them to do so. Liverpool’s talents for drawing 0-0 in games they should be winning tempts me into backing the draw at a very reasonable price.

Draw @ 4.75 with Bet365 – 3 points (Returned 0)

Birmingham City vs Wigan Athletic – Wigan have been in extremely poor form recently – 4 draws and 4 losses in their last 8 games, which includes a couple of home fixtures you’d really expect them to win. Birmingham haven’t been quite as strong recently, although have been playing much better football than Wigan, and are a tough side to beat at home. I think come next weekend, Wigan will still be looking for their first win in 10 games, and the 1.90 available on Birmingham is good value.

Birmingham win @ 1.90 with Bet365 – 9 points (Returned 17.1)

Total Stake: 16 points

Total Return: 17.1 points

Total Profit: +1.1 points