Typical Africa to follow such atrocity with such astonishing excitement. After all that went on last Friday the hosts Angola did their best Alistair Campbell impression to temporarily overshadow events by having a hand in one of the most exciting football matches of all time. This client, almost devoid of domestic action and searching for a bet, came across - what turned out to be - the bet of his life. Our man had got long of TGM's in their opening game against Mali at 121 for £10 and probably still cannot believe what happened. By the 74th minute the hosts had raced to a 4-0 lead with the pornstar sounding former United striker Manucho scoring a penalty. The punter was already on a chunky 98 point profit when Mali staged a comeback of Sol Campbell proportions. 11 minutes remained when Mali pulled one back. Three minutes remained when Freddie Kanoute made it 4-2. Three minutes of injury time had been played when Keita made it 4-3. And deep into the kind of injury time which would've finished off Fergie, Mali made possible the impossible as they shocked the football world, made our client £4,450 and for a moment, put a lid on Friday's events.

A colleague of mine, a big Green Bay Packers fan described himself as "sick" after Sunday's defeat to Arizona. And that's not the "sick" which young people use to describe something that's good, I'm talking pure disappointment here. After what was the highest scoring postseason game in American Football history the only thing worse than seeing your team lose in such fashion would be to have sold this great game's Match Performance like one punter did at 274 for £25. Awarding 20 points for a TD, 5 for a field goal, 15 for a turnover, 10 for a sack, 3 for a penalty and -25 points if either team is "shutout" (i.e. don't score a point). The game developed into a sensational passing duel between quarterbacks Aaron Rodgers and Kurt Warner with the youngster throwing a staggering 422 yards to the old master's 379. 13 touchdowns were scored, with two field goals, four turnovers, six sacks, 17 penalties and certainly NO SHUTOUT! Both teams tied it at 45 which meant overtime. Three plays later it was over as Rodgers fumbled, let the Cardinals steal victory, lose the punter £4,175 and send Green Bay packing!

Football Arsenal had the perfect opportunity to close the gap at the top of the table but the Gunners were held to a 2-2 draw against the Moyesiah's Everton. Victory would have seen the Wenger boys move to within a point of Chelsea. Is the title drifting away from N5? The Gooners are down 2 points on our Premier League Championship Index to 32-35.

Last weekend Birmingham held faltering champions United to a 1-1 draw at St Andrews, with the hosts unlucky not to have taken all 3 points. Amazingly, Alex McLeish's side are now unbeaten since October and on this form will fancy their chances of a European berth. Can the Blues sustain the charge? Their Season Points are up one to 50.5-52.

NFL As depicted above the undisputed game of the week in the NFL saw Arizona eventually run out 51-45 winners over Green Bay. It seemed that the entire SPIN office were with the Packers, so there were some glum faces and empty wallets come Monday morning thanks to the Cardinals' late show. The party poopers from Phoenix are up 10 points on our Super Bowl Outright Index to 42-45.


Sporting video fun

Two things caught my eye this week. Firstly I was further exposed to the glorious violent stupidity which is ice hockey from Russia. While the Mozambique goalkeeper causes any Premier League managers to press stop on the video with this technique.