Ghana Goner

I am a qualified football referee and watching the amazing end to the Ghana game reminded me of my training course many years ago and a particular scenario which at the time my tutor claimed had never happened in the professional and major amateur game. We got very close to that scenario yesterday and if it actually would have happened it would have been interesting  to have seen if the referee would have applied the law correctly.

If the goaline handball was technically the last action of the game, the game is then extended to  allow for the taking of the penalty kick. I am assuming that the referee would have advised the players that the actual kick would be the last action which would rule out any possible follow ups by a save or hitting the woodwork. As we know, the ball hit the bar and flew over but what would have happened if the ball hit the bar came back and hit the back of the goalkeeper and went into the net?

If this was the end of game penalty shootout a goal is awarded but as it was a standard penalty kick and the last kick, as soon as the ball travelled away from goal the referee must signal the end of the game so he should have disallowed the goal. If he did apply the law correctly there would have probably been a riot on the pitch as I can't imagine the players and managers would have known about it.

I mentioned last month about looking at opportunites that may arise in other markets as a result  of the market that is currently in play. One such opportunity came to light when Ghana were awarded that last minute penalty. Over on the 'winner' market the price of Uruguay rose to 400. There wasn't much cash available but it would have been a gamble worth paying if Ghana missed and then went on to lose the shoot out. This is exactly what happenned and as a result the price for Uruguay reduced to 12.

Encouraged at Paul's ease at trading the tennis market over at Tradeshark plus the fact that I had the day off, I decided to give the Murray game a go. Like a true inexperienced Tennis trader I managed to lose £40. Oh well there is always todays game!

I made it back thanks to Middlesex.

The small horse loss doesn't tell the whole story as at one point I was down £80 thanks to the return of the idiot of a punter who seems to enjoy placing their large back bets half down the ladder to hoover everything above which sees the price suddenly drop 20 ticks. In one pre race I was up £18 only to see me down £25 in less than a second! I admit that I went in play a few times (even though I shouldn't) to try to recoup my losses but the strategy worked this time as I quickly clawed it back.

I was up a tiny bit on Thursday but overall I am slightly in the red for July.