Yesterday's football bets followed a familiar route... downwards!

I correctly put a Lay bet on Arsenal and Hull actually scored first. I eventually traded to a green book position giving a £10 Arsenal win profits and £5 for a Hull win or draw. With 7 minutes left in the match, I traded again and switched the major profit to a drawn result with a £2.80 profit for an Arsenal win, -£2.30 for a Hull win and £10 the draw. ONE minute later Arsenal score and go on to win 2-1.

Fixtures 17 March Arsenal v Hull / Match Odds Comm Charged 5% On Net winnings of GBP2.8

Then I switched the stake over to Lay QPR who were 1-0 up after 75 minutes in the full expectation that Swansea would score to equalise. This was a forlorn hope and QPR held on to win.

Fixtures 17 March QPR v Swansea / Match Odds / QPR Lay 1.23 20.00 Lost (4.60)

This leaves £65.04 in the Grand AskJack Betfair Experiment Account down by -£20.99 since close of play Sunday night.

It's hard to say where things have gone wrong, other than perhaps making some unwise choices and closing my positions either to late or to early. I guess that is the "game" and the great uncertainty when betting in-play.

So, twenty quid down and today's in-play football list looks slightly "difficult".

The plan is the same: Lay the odds-on Favorite then trade my ass off when things go wrong.

It's not a perfect plan, but it's mine and I'm sticking to it!!

10:00 Kashima v Shanghai Shenhua
At least this match is being shown on live video.
Status Matched: Lay Kashima £10.00 @ 1.76 Profit £17.60 Liability £7.60
Midway through the second half with the score 1-0 Shanghai get a man sent off. I don't see anyway this Lay is going to work. But, you never know. Nope, it's all-gone tits-up with the score 2-0 (great second goal). Now I need Kawasaki to save the day.

10:30 Pohang Steelers v Kawasaki
Kawasaki played well in the first-half and this one is probably worth risking a small punt on a Back bet:
Status Matched: Back Kawasaki £3.00 @ 3.8 Profit £8.40

11:00 Lokomotiv Plovdiv v CSKA Sofia
11:30 Esteghlal v Al Jazira
12:00 Tianjin Teda v Central Coast
13:30 Levski Sofia v Chernomorets B
15:00 Umm-Salal v Al-Ittihad
16:00 Grenoble v Monaco
16:30 Al Shabab (UAE) v Bunyodkor
17:00 AEK v Panserraikos
17:00 Ettifaq v Sepahan
18:00 Rennes v Rodez
18:30 Austria Karnten v Sturm Graz
19:15 Asteras Tripolis v Olympiacos
19:30 St Etienne v W Bremen
Pre Game Research

1st Round UEFA Cup Bremen 1 - 0 St-Etienne
Round of 16 - 12 March 2009 - Weserstadion - Bremen - Germany

Werder Bremen may live to regret their failure to build on Naldo's first-half goal as the Bundesliga club squandered a host of presentable opportunities to take a sizeable lead into the second leg of their UEFA Cup Round of 16 tie with AS Saint-Etienne.
http://www.uefa.com/competitions/uefacup/fixturesresults/round=15287/match=304827/report=rp.html#newsActions

Perrin was quoted in the French press as saying, after Sunday's Ligue 1 defeat to Grenoble, that he will sacrifice his side's chances of winning the UEFA Cup to preserve their hopes of staying in Ligue 1.

"The UEFA Cup is a chore - we are not going to play to qualify against Bremen," he said on Sunday, after the 1-0 loss to ASSE's Alpine rivals which keeps them in the relegation zone.

But he has since changed tack and wants his men to give all they have to turn around the 1-0 deficit from the last-16 first leg.
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/9346440/Preview:-St.-Etienne-vs.-Werder-Bremen

Bremen are Champions League late entrants and flying high in their domestic league scoring 4 goals in their last game.

St Etienne are qualifiers and due to be relegated from their domestic league. The manager has stated he doesn't mind losing, then changes his mind. The players are bound to be demoralised and will probably play that way.

Goal feast for Bremen!

I waded in with the very last of my experiment money. If this goes tits-up... I'm bust!

Good news Bremen are 0-2 up at halftime and I have some great bets riding on the second half.

My very best result would be a very boring half with NO goals.

Here's my betting screens:

Recovered stake for safety after the last few disaster bets.

Please.... make this so be the final score!! Nope 1-2 on the 60th minute. Bremen seem to be playing with concrete feet. I really hope they don't draw this.

Any team scores and this bet goes in!

Dumb it down Bremen and do Jack a favour.

19:45 Ajax v Marseille
19:45 Aberdeen v Dunfermline
22:00 Chico v Universidad de Chile
22:00 San Lorenzo v Libertad
00:50 Cruzeiro v Uni de Sucre
00:50 Defensor Sporting v Sao Paulo
00:50 Guarani (Par) v Boca Juniors
03:10 San Luis v Universitario