Football Bet of the Day: Sound the Horn, it's time for a relegation scrap

Hartberg fans have forgotten what a goal for their team looks like

After securing a winner in his first appearance in this column, Kevin Hatchard's looking for more profit in the second tier of Austrian football.

Gefle did the business for us in Sweden last night, but they left it uncomfortably late. Anders Baath-Sjoblom (nightmare if your kid wants that name printed on their replica shirt) netted in the 76th minute to give Gif a 1-0 win over Mjallby.

Today we're hopping over to Austria, but before you start getting excited about Red Bull Salzburg or Rapid Vienna, let me warn you there'll be none of that fancy-pants stuff here. It's the second division for us today, and a 17:30 clash between early-season strugglers SV Horn (stop giggling at the back) and Hartberg at the Waldviertler Volksbank Arena.

If these two teams were sprinters, then you could say they've fallen off the starting blocks while most of the division races down the track. Horn were battered 3-0 at St Polten in the opening round of matches, drew 0-0 at home to Mattersburg, and then went down 2-1 at the unusually named FAC Team fur Wien.

Hartberg have had an even worse start to the campaign. They were beaten 3-0 at home by Liefering, played out a goalless draw at LASK Linz, and were spanked 4-0 at home by Mattersburg.

So we have a scrap between two sides who have managed just a point each from three games. The bottom two clubs in this ten-team division will be relegated at the end of the season, and both Horn and Hartberg have work to do to prove they aren't candidates for the drop, with only Wacker Innsbruck below them in the standings.

The price that screams out at me is the 2.35/4 on offer for Under 2.5 Goals. Bearing in mind how dreadfully these sides have begun the campaign, there's bound to be some tension creeping in, and that often leads to a more conservative approach. Horn and Hartberg (potential cop show?) have scored just one goal between them in six games, and it's worth noting that Horn's only home match was a goalless draw, which was true of Hartberg's only away game.

A scrappy, low-quality snoozefest will do us just fine.

Recommended Bet

Back Under 2.5 Goals at 2.35/4

2014 P/L (1pt per bet)

Points Staked: 1

Points Returned: 2.12

P/L: +1.12 points