Football Bet of the Day: Playing the Longford game

Angels With Dirty Faces: League of Ireland teams are fastidious about keeping their sheets clean

Tobias Gourlay looks forward to a quiet afternoon at Harp Park

Finn Harps v Longford
Sunday 15:00

Only the stench of failure lit up Auld Reekie yesterday as Hibernian notched an unprecedented clean sheet and Dumbarton matched them all the way to a goalless draw at Easter Road.

We've escaped across the sea, where you'll find Longford Town sitting pretty atop the League of Ireland Division 1 table.

Stout defence is what's got them there: they've kept clean sheets in each of their last eight away games, with a couple of goalless draws along the way. In total this term, they've shut out their hosts in 10/13.

In the last five seasons under Tony Cousins, both teams have scored in 33/72 of their away matches.

Finn Harps are fifth - which isn't so good when you know this is an eight-team league - and part of the problem is inconsistency on the home front.

The Harps have won only 3/13 at Harp Park this season and failed to score in 6/13. With five clean sheets of their own to shout about, both teams have scored in only 5/13.

Recommended Bet
Say 'No' to Both Teams to Score? @ 2.166/5 in Finn Harps v Longford

2014 P/L (1pt per bet)

Staked: 41pts
Returned: 34.4pts

-6.6pts