My work colleague, Pav, and I have been carrying out a number of football bets throughout the season. You’ll remember a while ago, I mentioned our weekly wager, where we both play the Sky Sports Super 6 competition, which involves predicting the results from six selected football fixtures. The winner receives a can of San Pellegrino. To date, I am proving a lot more successful at this than poor Pav. From the six rounds of fixtures we have played, Pav has won one, while I have received five cans of drink.

We have also introduced an FA Cup bet. As you know, I am a Bath City fan. Pav has adopted his local(ish) non-league team, Larkhall Athletic. It was agreed that whoever’s team progresses furthest in the prestige cup competition will win a prize, although this time it’s not just a can of soft drink, no, this is something far better… a cooked breakfast from Matty’s café. Last night, both Bath City and Larkhall Athletic played in the FA Cup. You will know from reading yesterday’s blog that Bath City beat Poole Town. Did The Larks manage to match their success? Errr… no. While listening to the City commentary, I also followed how Larkhall were doing on their Twitter feed. Let’s just say they got thrashed. The Larkhall tweeter is excellent at providing match updates, but they clearly became bored (or very depressed) during the second half. It was reported that Larkhall were losing 1-0.This soon became 2-0, before I read news of a third and fourth goal being concede by Pav’s team. At this point the tweets stopped. Investigating at full time, I saw they had lost 7-0. Poor Larkhall, but the Matty’s was mine.

Thanks for the Mattys. My condolences about your cup exit

I did feel a tad guilty about Pav having to spend almost five British pounds on a breakfast for me this Friday, but I know if it had been the other way round and Bath City had got stuffed, with Larkhall progressing, I would be the one paying out. Pav argued that his Larkhall team were are a team of amateurs, so it is unfair. I don’t really see a problem with that – we have an identical bet later this season, involving our other clubs – Leeds United for me, and Pav’s beloved West Ham. Pav states that Larkhall are amateurish – the same could be said about Leeds, so it looks like I’ll be buying the Matty’s in the New Year.

Maybe I’ll ask Pav to buy me this?