A Brighton win, a Grand National win, but what about the lottery?
This has been quite the week in the Noble Household. Brighton won, the Grand National took place and I ventured cautiously into the world of online gambling with fantastic consequences.
Following last week’s 0-0 draw with Norwich City, I wrote this: “We all know that Albion like to do things the hard way, and so my bet was that we would draw with Norwich before beating Arsenal and taking a point from both Spurs and Manchester City. With it finishing Brighton 0-0 Norwich, so far I am onto a winner. The only problem being I am not a gambling man.”
That last part is no longer true. On Saturday morning, I decided that my wife and I should have a little flutter on the Grand National to the tune of a £5 each way bet.
Having mastered the Albion website and season tickets on mobile phones, my newly installed Ladbrokes App was a walk in the park.
There was only one small matter of confusion, when I was asked if I wanted to boost my bet. Not being a gambling man, I had no idea what this meant so I just pressed the button which said yes.
The app then informed me I now had odds of 50/1 on the horse I had chosen, which of course had to be Noble Yeats. Should my prediction about the Albion winning at Arsenal not end up being correct, then at least there was the big race at Aintree to enjoy shortly after the final whistle.
Turned out I need not have worried. Brighton were magnificent at the Emirates, running out 2-1 winners. The finishing in front of goal from Leandro Trossard and Enock Mwepu was clinical.
The players can now go to Spurs next week with nothing to fear and confidence restored after a great shift was put in by all concerned.
Listening on the radio to Johnny Cantor and Warren Aspinall, it seemed as though Arsenal were still wallowing in their defeat against Crystal Palace on Monday night.
Brighton were much the better team for the first 70 minutes with the goals from Trossard and Mwepu being the icing on the cake. Some of the football played watching the extended highlights back was fantastic.
We still needed some luck when Gabriel Martinelli had his header ruled out for offside and Arsenal hit the bar twice.
Robert Sanchez also made a couple of fantastic saves in the final 10 minutes as the Gunners tried to fight back.
It was nail-biting stuff, not helped by six minutes of injury time. Six minutes! I kept thinking that any second now, Arsenal would equalise.
The leveller never came however, and Brighton took the three points to move up to 11th spot in the Premier League.
As for the Gunners, two defeats in a row is not good for their Champions League hopes. Maybe they are at the start of a bad spell just as the Albion are hopefully now coming out of? It happens to most teams at some point in the season.
I was so enthralled by the end of the football that I almost forgot to turn off the radio and the television on for the Grand National.
The dog seemed quite pleased when we made the change as he had been going wild whilst I was jumping for joy at the full time whistle. None of this impressed Mrs Noble as her family are all lifelong Gooners.
The wife’s mood was at least to be lifted by what happened as the runners approached the start line in the National. The famous words “And they’re off!” set the horses off on a sunny and dry afternoon in Liverpool.
As they went over the Melling Road, it was “Over to you John Hamner.” I remember that saying from years ago.
Rarely since have I been so excited by the National as I was when they approached the last fence and Noble Yeats was looking like he could win.
The noise in the house was almost as loud as at Aintree and to my utter amazement, Noble Yeats took first place. A load of dosh was coming my way, which of course means another trip to the Amex Superstore soon.
In an immediate response to Noble Yeats winning, I quickly loaded up the National Lottery App and fired in five lucky dips. Unfortunately, I crashed and burned at that point with a harsh reminder of why I am not rarely a gambling man.
It would be rude not to put a couple of quid on a draw at Spurs next week though, right…
Tony Noble @Noble1844Tony
