Hearts v Hibs, Scottish Premier League - 3/1/09

In my experience there's little to get excited about in Scottish football, so if I was going to watch the Edinburgh derby I'd have to find a bet to make the experience that little bit less dry. I had a look around for a potential first goalscorer bet, and since Hibs were likely to play three strikers in Riordan, Johansson and Fletcher I thought I'd focus my attention on the Hearts players.

Even though they were favourites for the game and have had quite a good season, hardly any of their players seem to score any goals. Their striker Christian Nade plays on his own up front and would possibly be taking penalties, but he has a truly pitiful scoring record - one goal this season in twenty appearances, and sixteen goals in his entire footballing career, despite the fact he's a 24-year-old striker.

Presumably because of this record, one could buy him at 11 on the 0-100 first goalscorer market with one bookmaker, a market which makes up 100 if the player scores first and 0 if they don't. Buying that at 11 is equivalent to having a bet on him to score first at 8/1.

Despite his terrible scoring record, it sounded like he'd had a lot of chances in previous games and would surely find the net soon. There's just no way that a striker on his own up front and possibly on penalties, playing for the team that's favourite, cannot be a bet at 8/1. So against my better instincts I BOUGHT CHRISTIAN NADE FIRST GOALSCORER AT 11.

DURING THE MATCH

Perhaps Scottish football is actually really entertaining most of the time, with lots of incisive passing, goals and excitement, but I just happened to have mainly watched the games that are very dull and lacking in quality. Then again, if one observes Rangers' heroic but unfathomably dour UEFA Cup run last season, and then considers that they're one of the two best teams in the league by miles, I think my cynicism about Scottish football is justified.

I did feel sorry for Christian Nade in this game. Everyone really wanted him to score, chances kept falling to him, but he just missed over and over again. He hit the woodwork twice, had a couple of efforts saved and blazed one embarrassingly over.

This was the sort of bet that had to be worth doing, but was just always going to lose. I'm not sure what betting lessons I've learned from this nil-nil draw, but one thing's for sure, I won't be watching the repeat of this fixture at Easter Road this weekend.

AR