And finally…’I backed Leicester title win -by mistake’

In the wake of the Foxes’ successful 5000-1 title charge, two firefighters who bet on the single longest odds bet to pay out in the history of British have come forward to say the did so…by mistake.

The people of Stanford-le-Hope in Essex will presumably be hoping fireman Jordan Wright is more on-the-ball doing his day job than he was when he mistakenly backed the unlikey champs but the gaff has left him and his friend scooping £10,000 each.

Mr Wright thought he had only placed a £5 bet on Leicester to win their first match of the season against Sunderland, at odds of 2,000/1.

Amazed at the seemingly generous odds, he convinced friend Mitchell Baldock to do the same, neither realising it related to the team winning the league.

Mr Wright said he and Mr Baldock “thought BetFred had messed up the odds” for Leicester’s first game of the season, so decided to place a bet to try to take advantage of the mistake.

The pair were mercilessly mocked by their fire brigade colleagues who told them the mistake they had made.

After realising his error, Mr Wright said he “didn’t think too much” about Leicester’s fortunes during the season “until the last quarter”.

“It was when they won 3-1 against Manchester City - that’s when I started thinking we had a real chance of winning,” he said.

“Everyone loves an underdog so it was nice to see them win,” Mr Wright, a London Fire Brigade worker, said.

“Every Premier League team wanted them to win, too - no-one will begrudge them for it.”

Mr Wright said he had put part of his £10,000 into a personal training business he runs alongside his job, and was planning a trip to Las Vegas in June.

Mr Baldock, from Thurrock, had also put his share of the money into a new business, he said.