Place your bets now

As a Burnley fan there were many chances to win a bit of extra pocket money by betting on the team last season.

While the squad were busy earning promotion to the Premier League and reaching the Carling Cup Semi Final, seeing off Arsenal and Chelsea along the way, those with an eye for a bet (and the spare money) were able to cash in on our success at the bookmakers.

Although that wasn’t the case for me, while not a natural in the field of betting I’m also as skint as a post divorce Ray Parlour.

I have tried my hand at all sorts with little to no success in the past, punting on the likes of football, horse racing, greyhounds, cricket, rugby, darts and dancing on ice; all of the worlds major sporting events.

However it was the reintroduction of the in-ground betting shacks at Turf Moor that reignited my interest last season. A pre match pint whilst picking out which Claret would score first became a regular feature of my pre match build up in the Bob Lord. In the whole season I won once; it was Chris McCann who stuck me gold (about £13.50) when he thumped in a header on five minutes against leaders Wolves on Valentines Day, needless to say where my winnings went.

Those that stuck twenty or thirty quid on getting out of the Championship certainly paid for their promotion party beer money once or twice over. Although monetary reward for the best season of watching Burnley Football Club in my lifetime would have been no bonus, instead I think I’d have used the money to kit out a few of Burnley’s homeless in full replica kit whilst giving them enough cash to secure themselves a meat and potato pie and a Bovril.

With our first Premier League campaign now just under two weeks away I’ve decided to place two wagers. Given my betting history I’m not entirely sure why, probably because the wait for the season is killing me plus I haven’t written an article on here for a while and think it will make a half decent feature (for those of you that have don’t have faiths that denounce betting anyway).

So here are my punts.

1) Burnley to avoid relegation from the Premier League.
2) Burnley to finish above Blackburn in the table.

I think these two, along with doing the double over Rovers would be the ultimate wishes of any fellow Burnley fans over the coming season.

We know that our finances compared with the rest of the league are for the most part incomparable, but what we do have is our work ethic and undoubted team spirit that may carry us through to safety.

Looking at our rivals also fills me with some confidence; we have shown we’re more than capable of competing with our promotion rivals Wolves and Birmingham. I doubt Hull City will be a force, especially with the way their goateed, perma-tanned manger Phil Brown has been behaving, offering himself to Premiership strikers in a manner that would make the sluttiest of wannabe WAGS blush. Portsmouth seem to be in financial meltdown and are having to sell players left, right and centre-forward to survive. Archetypal hoofers Blackburn and Stoke will be hit and miss, while Roberto Martinez’s Wigan may suffer from a post Steve Bruce lull while they adapt to a different style of play. And that’s just a few of the candidates, Bruce’s new club Sunderland may falter, while West Ham and Fulham will find it difficult to emulate last seasons successes and who can forget Spurs, who will probably be bottom until Christmas.

This morning I purchased my tickets for our season opener away at Stoke which made our return to the Promised Land feel even more real. The excitement is building to what will be one hell of a season. If we don’t stay up it will still have been an unforgettable ride; but if we do, I’m sure you’ll help me in making Burnley a place where even the tramps wear Claret and Blue.