:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/21650187/166586129.0.jpg)
| Pundit | Last Week's Profit/Loss | Current Balance |
| Simon Walsh | £44.00 | £104.00 |
| Stephen Goldsmith | -£10.00 | £89.80 |
| Luke Bowley | £7.53 | £46.56 |
| Dave Boyle | -£6.97 | £8.00 |
| Karl Jones | N/A | £0 |
| Nick Holden | N/A | -£1.00 |
| Craig Clark | -£3.25 | -£7.25 |
The £100 mark has been reached for the first team this season, after Our Glorious Leader Simon Walsh netted an excellent £44 profit to take him to the top of the leaderboard. A lower league treble of Hartlepool/MK Dons/Leyton Orient is what gave Simon such a big win. I also won some money on an Orient win, but it was slim pickings elsewhere, as we pretty much all went for Sunderland to get a result for some reason. I'm sure we've learned our lesson this week:
Luke Bowley
Difficult to know what to bet on in this weekend's derby match. Of course, we all know Sunderland are hopelessly shit, and there are some quite tempting odds on, for example, Loic Remy to score anytime. But this would mean betting on Newcastle to do well, which I'm not going to consider, so I'll place money on someone scoring a penalty. There's normally a penalty, and with Craig Gardner on the pitch and not the Tyne and Wear Metro this time round, there's a strong possibility there'll be one.
Elsewhere I'm going for Fiorentina, boosted by their excellent come from behind win against Champions Juventus last weekend, to beat struggling Chievo.
- Sunderland Vs Newcastle, either team to score a penalty - 11/4 - £2 Stake
- Fiorentina to beat Chievo - 11/10 - £10 Stake
Simon Walsh
Absolutely delighted to be top. Almost makes everything worthwhile after all. Now only if I'd started backing the winners in real life, as every time I've put actual money down I seem to lose.
On to this weekends game and I'm feeling pretty grim about the entire situation. However, it's incredibly difficult for me to bring myself to bet against Sunderland, and I simply can't do that. Well actually I can, but I can't this week. Not at all. I'm going to go for there being three goals in the match, priced at 16/5.
Elsewhere I'm gonna go for a treble on 'Boro, Fleetwood Town and Bristol City, all to win. Worked last week at least.
- Sunderland Vs Newcastle, 3 total goals in game - 16/5 - £5 Stake
- Middlesbrough, Fleetwood Town and Bristol City all to win - 11/1 - £4 Stake
Craig Clark
As a rule, I don't bet on the derby, but then again I usually start to feel nervous by this stage.
If I was looking at this match completely dispassionately - which in a sense I am, given my lack of feeling toward Sunderland a the moment - it'd be hard to look past a Newcastle win. They've scored a fair few goals this season whilst we like to give them away for free and despite their leaky defence, we don't appear to have the attacking threat to punish it.
That said, the signs point to a much changed side from the one that surrendered meekly in South Wales, so there's a chance a few of the more consistently pathetic performers won't find their way onto the pitch to capitulate once again. Whether the lads waiting in the wings can form a better team, remains to be seen.
I can't bring myself to go for a Mags win, so instead I'll go for us to hand Mike Williamson his first goal in a Newcastle shirt, probably from a corner since they seemingly rarely score from them. That would just about sum Sunderland up, wouldn't it?
Elsewhere, I'm going for Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Marseille, Leverkusen and Mainz to win.
- Mike Williamson to score anytime - 14/1 - £1 stake
- Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Marseille, Leverkusen and Mainz to win - 6/1 - £5 stake
David Boyle
If ever there was a game to avoid from a betting point of view it would be the unpredictable Tyne & Wear derby, however that wouldn't really help a feature based on gambling would it. What we do know heading into this game is that while Sunderland's defence has been an utter embarrassment this year, Newcastle's doesn't look especially strong either. So with that said I am going to back there to be goals come Sunday lunchtime, hopefully enough in our favour.
Elsewhere, I hate to double up bets with one of the other lads, but Fiorentina's clash with struggling Chievo also caught my eye while I was stumbling aimlessly around oddschecker and 11/10 isn't too bad a price all things considered there.
- Sunderland vs Newcastle: Over 2.5 Goals - 20/21 - £5 Stake
- Fiorentina vs Chievo: Fiorentina win - 11/10 - £4 Stake