Southampton Shrimper
Team Eggheads
With us ending up in sixth place, I thought I'd look back through the history books to see how well teams had done in the play-offs from that position.
And not too well, I'm afraid to say. In the 21 years of the play-offs up to last season, the team finishing bottom of the play-off group in our division (the third tier, now known as League One) has reached the final on only seven occasions.
However, could there be a pattern here? There were four years in the mid-nineties when this happened in consecutive seasons. Could there be another four-team pattern about to be completed in the mid-noughties?
The teams who made it to the final from 6th place (or equivalent):
1994 Burnley won
1995 Huddersfield won
1996 Bradford won
1997 Crewe won
2003 Cardiff won
2004
2005 Hartlepool lost
2006 Swansea lost
2007
2008 could we???
So, a win at Wembley would be completing a nice little pattern. Interesting also that although few teams have made it past the semi-finals from our position, until three years ago all of those that did did end up getting promoted.
And now, for those of you who haven't yet lost the will to live, here is the really freaky fact:
Since the play-offs were first introduced in 1987, the 25th May has fallen on a Sunday only three times. On each of those three occasions, the Play-Off Final for the third tier has been played on that date, which of course includes this year, 2008. The last two years this happened were 2003 and 1997, which happen to be the last two occasions that the team finishing in sixth place won the play-off final.
:stunned:
Spooky!
Right, I'm off for a lie down, the men in white coats should be round soon!
And not too well, I'm afraid to say. In the 21 years of the play-offs up to last season, the team finishing bottom of the play-off group in our division (the third tier, now known as League One) has reached the final on only seven occasions.
However, could there be a pattern here? There were four years in the mid-nineties when this happened in consecutive seasons. Could there be another four-team pattern about to be completed in the mid-noughties?
The teams who made it to the final from 6th place (or equivalent):
1994 Burnley won
1995 Huddersfield won
1996 Bradford won
1997 Crewe won
2003 Cardiff won
2004
2005 Hartlepool lost
2006 Swansea lost
2007
2008 could we???
So, a win at Wembley would be completing a nice little pattern. Interesting also that although few teams have made it past the semi-finals from our position, until three years ago all of those that did did end up getting promoted.
And now, for those of you who haven't yet lost the will to live, here is the really freaky fact:
Since the play-offs were first introduced in 1987, the 25th May has fallen on a Sunday only three times. On each of those three occasions, the Play-Off Final for the third tier has been played on that date, which of course includes this year, 2008. The last two years this happened were 2003 and 1997, which happen to be the last two occasions that the team finishing in sixth place won the play-off final.
:stunned:
Spooky!
Right, I'm off for a lie down, the men in white coats should be round soon!
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