Saints have a prayer here
ON Thursday I saw something I’ve never seen before in over 35 years of watching greyhound racing.
I go back to Ballyregan Bob and I’d say I’ve seen somewhere in the region of 5,000 dog races and never before had I witnessed what happened in the 2:36 at Newcastle.
Poor old King Idol was already up against it from Trap 1 as he started off at 14-1 but then I noticed something wrong as they approached the top bend.
As he came around the turn the problem became clear — his jacket had slipped off, leaving King Idol to trot in rather sadly, like an unfit streaker, in last place.
I’m not going anywhere with this but King Idol and Manchester United have got something in common — both have been running around hopelessly in red jackets.
United feel like they ought to be ninth or 10th in the Premier League but they are well in the top-four battle and they will expect to beat Southampton in the lunchtime game today.
The Saints, though, have been doing rather nicely lately and they picked off Spurs on the road in midweek.
They are in the top 10 now but you would imagine they have reached their ceiling now and United should win. But we’ve been saying that for weeks and they keep slipping up. The Saints have enough to get a draw in this one and at 10-3 that is a tempting price.
Brentford and Crystal Palace are just hovering above the relegation scrap at the moment, but a few wins would ease their worries.
The Bees have gone off the boil lately and they are definitely in trouble if they can’t arrest their slide.