Goals Galore No Draw nets pals six-figure payout

Four workmates have won a staggering £160,000 from just a £8 wager after TWENTY football teams all scored at least one goal.

The pals, who all work for the same Lancashire haulage company, took less than a minute to select the fixtures in England, Scotland and Spain on Betfred’s Goals Galore No Draw coupon.

Both teams had to score at least one goal in each of the ten fixtures – and it didn’t matter who won as long as it was not a draw for them to be in the money big time.

The winning bet slip

Betfred boss Fred Done, who rang the beaming workmates at the bookies’ shop on Poulton Street, Kirkham, near Preston to congratulate them personally, said:

“Christmas has come early for these fellas and I’m absolutely chuffed to bits for them.”

He went on: “It is an extraordinary return. What can you buy for £2 which is what each of these fellas put in to make up the winning £8 bet? Betfred have transformed the lives of these guys, and good luck to them. It’s brilliant news and great  timing for them to have brilliant Christmases with their families.”

The jubilant Betfred regulars Stephen Lesser (left), Jason Wardley (left centre), Stephen Baker (right centre) and Bruce Lawrenson (right) all work as supervisors at the huge James Hall wholesalers in Preston.

The lads met at the Betfred shop on Poulton Street, Kirkham, to celebrate their big win

Usually football fans spend hours poring over the Goals Galore No Draw coupon working out which teams are most likely to score – but not this lucky quartet, for it took them just 30 seconds with each picking the match numbers based around the ages of their loved ones.

Aston Villa fan Lesser, a 37-year-old father-of-one from Newton, said: “Last week Bruce and I were chatting about the coupon and he said that it’s a tough one to crack. I told him we should do something different and just pick random numbers and see what happens.

“I worked from 4am to 8.30pm on Saturday, doing overtime ahead of Christmas, and so never even bothered to check how we’d got on even though nine of the ten games had already been played by the time I went to bed.

“On Sunday morning, I kid you not, I was looking in my wallet wondering how much I had to get by with Christmas coming up and I happened to check the Betfred slip. It was a case of tick, tick, tick, until I got to the last of the ten matches which was Blackpool at home to non-league Maidstone in the FA Cup, which was being played later that day.

“I rang the others to tell them. Jason was fishing, Bruce was getting ready to go to his mum’s 80^th birthday and Stephen was decorating.

“Stephen was the calmest. He just asked me which was the last game so he could follow it on the radio. Jason could barely concentrate on his fishing and packed up his rod and went home. Like everyone his wife couldn’t believe that we were all in for a £40,000 share out if Blackpool and Maidstone both score and there was a winner in the tie.

“When Maidstone scored first at Bloomfield Road we all knew we were in with a brilliant chance of being in the money. Looking back we were incredibly lucky with several of our ten matches going our way, particularly  Dundee versus Queen of the South when two goals were scored in injury time to make it 2-1 for the visitors.”

Liverpool supporter Jason, a 43-year-old father-of-two from Ribbleton, Preston, said: “We all had a go picking numbers of the matches as listed on the coupon. I picked my wife Carolyn’s age, which is 40, the age of my son Tommy Lee which is 23 and my daughter Hayley who is 18. Stephen picked the age of his daughter Olivia who is 8, and his house number which is 33. It was all sorted in thirty seconds flat.”

Once Jason had posted on social media details of the amazing bet, that was at that point in time resting on the Blackpool tie, literally millions of people became aware of the pals’ chance to beat 20,000/1 odds and land themselves the £160,000 windfall.

He said: “I put a tweet out and it got 1.7million impressions, 13,000 likes and 2,000 retweets. Everyone was wishing us all the best. It’s a surreal experience because you never imagine anything like this would happen to fellas like us. We will get down to the pub at some point and have a drink and sort out how we are going to celebrate. Stephen wants us to have the best possible bottle of whisky for a toast. Everyone is so pleased for us; even Fred who has had to pay out!”

Jason went on: “I’m going to buy a new car to replace my Peugeot… a four-by-four would be nice! I’ll treat my children and my wife too. She wants a new wedding ring because the current one is battered as we have been married for 17 years. The magic of the FA cup has come true for us.”

Stephen Lesser said: “It’s too late to book a trip to see Father Christmas in Lapland for my eight-year-old daughter this year, and I’m working all the time around Christmas anyway. But it will be Lapland for her next year – and in the summer Disneyland, because I want to give her some great memories as she is my world.  I’m thinking about getting myself a new car as I quite fancy an Audi, as well as putting a deposit down on a new house.”

Grandad Stephen Baker, 63, from Penwortham, said: “I’m going to use my share to ease myself into retirement, as well as treat my family. I want to spend as much time as possible with my wife Linda and we’ll be going on holidays to Scotland and Cyprus which were our favourite places before money became too tight.

Meanwhile Bruce, a 57-year-old grandfather from Ribbleton who is follicly challenged, joked:

“I’m going to get a hair transplant!”

He added: “My wife has been telling Jason she wants some special earrings from New York and it’s somewhere we’ve always wanted to visit so it looks like we’ll be going there. I’m a Preston fan and I found myself supporting the enemy Blackpool in just this one game. I might be happy with the £40,000 but I still won’t be wearing a tangerine shirt any time soon.”

The ten matches that all ended with a result and both teams scoring were Liverpool and Brighton in the Premier League; Bristol City-Huddersfield, Stoke-Blackburn and Wigan-Reading in the Championship; two FA Cup second round ties between Blackpool-Maidstone and Portsmouth-Altrincham; two Conference Premier division games Ebbsfleet-Wrexham and Torquay-Stockport together with the Scottish Championship match between Dundee-Queen of the South – and finally the Real Sociedad-Eibar clash in La Liga.