Last-gasp Aston Villa goal nets lucky punter £60,000 from £10 bet

A dramatic last-gasp equaliser from Jack Grealish to deny Brighton & Hove Albion the Championship title on Sunday (7 May) handed a punter from the Scottish Borders 60,000 reasons to smile.

The goal from the Aston Villa midfielder handed the league title to Newcastle United, meaning the punter's sevenfold accumulator netted him £60,734.38 ($78,636.49) from a £10 bet.

The man is in his 50s and wished to remain anonymous. He placed the bet with Ladbrokes at the start of the season and correctly predicted that Newcastle, Sheffield United, Portsmouth, Celtic, Hibernian, Livingston and Arbroath would win their respective leagues.

"Hindsight has paid off big time here for this customer for such a small outlay," said Jessica Bridge of Ladbrokes.

Bridge told the BBC that accumulator bets "normally come agonisingly close but hit the crossbar in extra time." She added that the lucky customer now has "60,000 reasons to thank Jack Grealish for his vital goal last weekend."

The 89th-minute goal from the England Under-21 midfielder was his fifth of the season after he came off the bench.

Aston Villa was relegated from the Premier League for the first time in 2016 and the club was unable bounce back immediately to English football's top tier after ending the current campaign in 13th place.

Speaking after the draw on Sunday, Villa manager Steve Bruce did not mince his words in a candid review of his team's season. "We're 31 points behind Brighton and that's unacceptable. I've got to have a squad of players who can mount a challenge otherwise I won't be sitting here [next season]," said Bruce.

We've finished 13th and that's the lowest I've finished in my career. The draw put a bit of a dampener on it [for Brighton] but they have got promoted. For us to be 31 points behind them shows the work I've got and we're as jealous as hell," he added.