Football betting: £10m patriotic punt on England

Patriotic punters are backing England to beat Croatia in their final Euro 2008 qualifying game and bookmakers are expecting the feelgood factor engendered by Israel's unexpected victory over Russia at the weekend to translate into a massive gamble on Steve McClaren's side. "There was doom and gloom around the England side when it looked like they were unlikely to qualify, but now that the feelgood factor has kicked in we are expecting to see a £10m gamble on England. One customer, from West London, has already staked £26,000 on them beating the Croats," said William Hill spokesman Graham Sharpe. However, not everyone is betting on a positive outcome and William Hill report plenty of bets for their offer of 12/1 that Steve McClaren will be out of his job by midnight on Wednesday night, and 6/1 that he will be gone by the end of this year. "If England manage to blow this fortunate opportunity of qualifying there would seem to be little chance that Steve McClaren could stay in his job," said Sharpe. William Hill make Peter Crouch 9/4 to score, with Jermain Defoe quoted at the same odds. Hills make Frank Lampard to get on the scoresheet with Beckham 3/1 to score (6/1 to score from a free kick; 16/1 to come off the bench and do so), Joe Cole and Steven Gerrard both 7/2. William Hill have seen a gamble on Peter Crouch to score and celebrate with a reprise of his famous 'Robot dance'. "A number of punters have asked for a price for Crouch to celebrate with his famous dance. He has not done it for some while, but the unexpected betting interest in him doing so suggests someone, somewhere may have reason to suppose that it is more probable than possible. "We initially offered 6/1 but then remembered the financial bashing we took when Craig Bellamy, then also at Liverpool, scored and celebrated with a golf-swing - which we had offered 100/1 about - and decided that we would take no chances and go 3/1!" said Sharpe.The boommaker have opened a book on what will happen first in the England vs Croatia game and offer 2/1 that a Croatia player will be yellow carded; 5/2 an England player yellow carded; 11/4 England score; 6/1 a substitution; 7/1 Croatia score; 33/1 red card shown to any player; 250/1 full time whistle blown. England are now 1/10 to qualify with William Hill who make them 11/2 to miss out. England are 4/7 to beat Croatia on Wednesday; 2/1 to draw and 11/2 to lose. England are 9/2 to win by the 2-0 margin which would guarantee that they topped the Group, although Croatia are still favourites at 2/5 to head the table, with England 7/4 to do so.