The pundits are back to cast their weathered eye over QPR’s crucial trip to Bolton, the sporting weekend as a whole, and the forthcoming Cheltenham Festival.

A jolly good week for the betting column last week with Brian pocketing £120 from a correct score and horse call to move out to £147.33. Andy remains £85.92 in the red having missed last week’s column owing to drunken rampage in Asda to which the relevant authorities were called to take appropriate action – LFW very own Roger Johnson in action. The Pro was right to call a draw at half time of the Everton game at 11/10 as well so had you followed us last week you’d have been picking up a tidy sum.

Brian Power

Two winners at 11/2 and 9/1 last week saw a return of £120 and a nice return to form.

Saturday’s early kick off sees the return of Cisse and he can make the difference - we need goals as we don't do clean sheets. I can see both teams scoring and will make this the first selection in my acca.

I have previously highlighted Ferdy Murphy’s record at Cheltenham and ignore him at your peril. Last year Divers won at the festival and returns in the Byrne Group Plate, and will have the AP McCoy on board. De Boitron finished fourth in the Grand Annual last year and has another crack. Ferdy also has Going Wrong entered in the equivalent race that Divers won so we will have a bet on each of them.

The highlight of the meeting is the Gold Cup I would have backed Kauto Star for a bigger stake but for his recent injury scare, and if fit the 5/1 available is good value so is worth a £5 just in case.

Finally as our regular readers (hello to you both) know Tommy Bowe done us a favour last week and is top try scorer in the tournament and I see no reason to desert him this week as the Irish take on Scotland and lump on a week later as Ireland head to Twickenham on St Patricks Day.

Good Luck.

For the weekend:

£10 Cisse to score first 7/1

£7.50 Tommy Bowe first try scorer v Scotland 8/1 and v England TBC

£2.50 ew Divers 25/1

£5 De Boitron 10/1

£5 Going Wrong 14/1

£5 Kauto Star Gold Cup 5/1

£5 acca both teams to score

Bolton 4/6

Coventry 4/5

Brentford 4/6

Maccelsfield 10/11

Peterborough 8/15

Previously Advised:

£10 Spurs to win FA cup 8/1

£2.50 e/w Sunderland to win FA cup 50/1

£12.50 Ireland to win Six Nations 5/1

£7.50 Bowe to be top tryscorer 11/1

Andy Hillman

I’m back after a week long hiatus that occurred to a temporary skew in the work/life balance. It’s probably for the best, I’d have only backed us to win or something equally stupid. Which is exactly what I’m going to do this week, away at Bolton.

Bolton have the worst home record in the league – even worse than us. We’ve got Cisse and mad man Diakite back for us, and I see us finally putting someone to the sword. So not am I only backing us to win at 11/5, I’m also backing us with a -1 handicap at 5/1 with Sporting Bet. What, as I always say, could possibly go wrong?

Elsewhere, the Cheltenham festival starts this week. I don’t know nearly as much about horses as Brian does, but I am well aware of Sprinter Sacre in the Arkle, and I’m backing him to win at better than evens with Betfair. Paddy Power are refunding losing bets if he wins, and the only real rival to him is Al Ferof, so I’ll also back him each way with Paddy Power.

Finally, my accumulator, and I’m going for a simple fivefold with Victor Chandler – I genuinely thought I’d won my accumulator last time out, until I realised that I’d backed West Ham for the win, as opposed to the Win or Draw as I thought I had. This week, I’ve gone for Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Man Utd, Norwich and Real Madrid, at odds of 13/2.

For the weekend:

QPR vs Bolton – QPR win - £7.50 @ 11/5 (Ladbrokes)

QPR vs Bolton – QPR to win with -1 handicap – £7.50 @ 5/1 (Sporting Bet)

Cheltenham – Sprinter Sacre to win £ 10 @ 2.08 (Betfair)

Cheltenham – Al Ferof £5 e/w @ around 5/2 (Paddy Power)

Fivefold accumulator - Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Man Utd, Norwich and Real Madrid, £10 @ 13/2 (BetVictor)

The Pro

After success last week professional odds compiler Owen Goulding says…

Well it seems keeping analysis short and sweet helped last week as I returned to winning ways with my prediction. Looking at this week's game, I am hoping QPR can also return to winning ways - it’s been far too long. The 'six pointers' generally start around March time and if I was offering odds, it would be 1/100 that prior to kick off on Saturday, the Sky pundits will have used this phrase at least five times in relation to the game. It’s not a 'must win' game quite yet, but it certainly is bordering on it. QPR looked a far improved side vs Everton - the organisation was there for all to see and it looks as though Mark Hughes may be reaping the benefits of his time on the training ground. Unfortunately, time isn't something he has in abundance, and Rangers are going to need to step up again on their trip to the Reebok.

With Cisse and Diakite available again, Hughes may be tempted to shuffle the pack, but I think he will keep it very similar to last week. I expect Diakite to be on the bench, although Cisse may well start. Bolton have been on an alarming slide since earning a point at home to Arsenal back at the beginning of February. Goals have been impossible to come by, but here they should have Kevin Davies back and therefore revert to a 4-4-2 system. Coyle has tried the 'let’s pack the midfield and try and get a draw' tactic in recent weeks, but to no avail. Here they will feel the need to attack and this could play well into QPR's hands. Bolton's defence looks weak and dramatically lacks pace. Also the big pitch at the Reebok should play to Cisse and SWP's strengths. It should be reasonably close, but Ladbrokes seem to have overpriced QPR at 11/5 for this one. I would be surprised if QPR are that big a price at kick off.

Bet of Weekend QPR to win - 11/5 Ladbrokes.

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