Title Prices for Blue Square Football Divisions

With the 'Big Freeze' taking hold, Alan Alger from league sponsors Blue Square takes a look at the title prices

Only twelve fixtures in the three Blue Square leagues managed to beat the freeze twice and stage the traditional Boxing Day - New Years Day return. Stevenage Borough took top spot in the Blue Square Premier with a 4-1 win at home to Cambridge United to double up on their 3-1 win on Boxing Day at the Abbey Stadium.

The fact that long time leaders Oxford United failed to complete two of their festive fixtures meant Graham Westley's side reached the summit and had their title odds cut to 7/2. Oxford drifted slightly to 2/5 as a real question will now be posed on their ability to cope with the pressure of chasing, albeit from a decent position of three games in hand. With York City and Luton Town in cup action, their odds for the title remained at 9/1 and 12/1 respectively. Stevenage were one of only three sides from the twelve fixtures to win on both dates. The others were Ebbsfleet United and Staines Town.

Plenty of punters could have got slightly carried away with Boxing Day results that saw AFC Wimbledon win 5-0 and Southport win 4-0. The price for both of those teams to win against the same opposition just six days later away from home came out at just under 4/1. You'd be forgiven for thinking, as most people did, that was a decent bet based on their margin of victory the day after Christmas. In an amazing pointer towards home advantage both sides lost without even scoring a single goal as Hayes & Yeading and Fleetwood Town got their own back. Southport are now 7/4 favourites for the Blue Square North with their festive opponents second in the market at 5/2. The games in hand are mounting up for Stalybridge Celtic and the 6/1 third favourites could go top with the additional points on offer. There were other instances of complete turnarounds that put the form book into perspective over Christmas and New Year. In the Blue Square North Gloucester exacted revenge on Redditch and it was a similar story for Dover Athletic who made up for a 6-2 horror show against Lewes just days earlier. Dover retained second favouritism in the Blue Square South title race at 14/1, with runaway leaders Newport shortened to a supposedly unassailable 1/16. The other teams to share the spoils were Bromley and Welling United who both enjoyed their neighbour's hospitality by producing two away wins for the coupon. The four fixtures on New Years Day from the Blue Square Premier went towards a season total of 302 matches so far, of which 42% have been home wins, 30% away wins and 28% draws. The most revealing statistic shows 750 goals scored in those games giving an average of 2.48 per game. If that figure is maintained till the end of the season then it will be the most goal-shy Conference season since 1994. That suggests either better defending or a more competitive division with less lopsided scorelines. An average price of Evs for under 2.5 goals in a game would prove to be decent value in the first few months of the campaign, which is extremely rare.