Meet the team

Meet the Team: This Week's Acca and Sporting Life Football tipping record


Meet our This Week Acca and Sporting Life football team of Joe Townsend, Tom Carnduff, Jake Osgathorpe and Jimmy 'The Punt' Cantrill and see their up to date tipping records.

Watch or hear from them every Thursday when a new episode of This Week's Acca is released on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts.


Follow Joe Townsend on X

Tipping record
2024/25: +25.94pts (ROI +15%)
2023/24: +16.06pts (ROI +11%)
2022/23: +18.35pts (ROI +41%)

No column on the website, rarely seen writing previews and stood down from the This Week’s Acca podcast in the latter part of the season following repeated listener complaints it’s becoming increasingly difficult to work out exactly what it is Joe actually does at Sporting Life. 'Football editor' apparently.

Prior to joining the site in early 2020 he bounced around various BBC and Sky offices before eventually finding his home at The Life.


Follow Tom Carnduff on X

Tipping record
2024/25: -31.96pts (ROI: -23%)
2023/24: -31.20pts (ROI -9%)
2022/23: +18.35pts (ROI +5%)

  • Find Tom's Notebook and his Weekend Tips every week on Sporting Life

Such is his obsession for the beautiful game, when Tom isn't presenting an episode of podcast This Week's Acca he's usually on the terraces at Elland Road supporting Leeds, in Grimsby watching the Mariners or closely following the trials and tribulations of Romanian minnows Progresul Spartac.

He cut his teeth at the 'independent' Ken Bates-owned Radio Yorkshire before joining Sporting Life in 2018, with his career peaking a year later when filming Marcelo Bielsa's memorable (failed) attempt to pronounce Ipswich.


Follow Jake Osgathorpe on X

Tipping record
2024/25: +29.13pts (ROI: +13%)
2023/24: +75.90pts (ROI +13%)
2022/23: +45.92pts (ROI +11%)

  • Find Jake's Premier League predictions every week on Sporting Life

Inventor of expected goals Jake Osgathorpe can be heard on the Betfair podcast and This Week's Acca relentlessly bringing xG to the conversation no matter the (tongue in cheek) opposition; unsurprising given his first job was part of Timeform launching its Infogol football product.

Jake's weekly Premier League predictions tipping column, unsurprisingly, is what it is.


Follow Jimmy 'The Punt' on X

Tipping record
2024/25: +16.44pts (ROI: +7%)
2023/24: -97.36pts (ROI -17%)
2022/23: +56.48ps (ROI +10%)

  • Find Jimmy's Punt (if he feels like publishing it) every week on Sporting Life

A rejection of smart phones could ultimately be his undoing, but having survived both a trip to London with the Sporting Life team, and a trip to the Euros in Germany with "pals" this summer via paper maps printed by his mum, there remains hope for Jimmy yet.

Keen fisherman and Twitter addict, 'The Punt' is building quite the reputation as an enigmatic football tipster, much of which has been built on famously being the only man to back Saudi Arabia to beat Argentina (with a keeper card thrown in for good measure).


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