A football-mad Brit has turned to a bowl of bangers and mash to predict World Cup results, and his latest forecast has England tipped to beat Croatia in their opening clash.
Luke Symons, a 35-year-old from Cleethorpes, Lincolnshire, has transformed Britain's favourite comfort food into a bizarre psychic prediction machine. Using sausages to forecast match outcomes, his method has achieved a remarkable 45 per cent success rate across the first 20 matches of the 2026 World Cup, being held in the US, Canada, and Mexico.
To generate his culinary forecasts, Luke places two national flags on either side of a mountain of mashed potato. He then drops a sausage into the centre of the bowl, and whichever team the banger points toward is tipped for glory.
For England's opening clash against Croatia at Dallas Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the sausage landed pointing directly at the St George's Cross. Luke shared the prediction on his social media page, aptly named The Mash Man.
Luke said: "Many take it as solid gambling advice – I don't recommend. France are strong favourites but I must side with England, and if the sausages align, we should be in for a good chance."
He added: "If I look at the shape and angle of the sausage, it looks like a close game with England edging it. I'd say a 2-1 win. Goals from Kane and Rashford."
The unusual idea began as a joke among friends. Luke, who works in tech support, is known in his friendship group as "The Mash Man" because of his love for bangers and mash.
He explained: "It started as an inside joke between friends. We were randomly talking about what we used to have for lunch at school and I said I favoured mash. In typical lad fashion, they didn't drop it and started calling me Mash boy/man and that I should start my own TikTok account of me making mash. I didn't back down. I started an account which got zero views but then Euro 2024 came around and the idea came to me. The videos did well so I said I'll do it for the World Cup 2026. And here we are."
Despite sounding completely bonkers, Luke's sausage-powered forecasting system has correctly predicted around 45 per cent of matches so far. Among its successes was correctly backing Saudi Arabia to claim a surprise draw against Uruguay.
