2018-19 Football League Playoffs:

The playoffs get underway this week, starting Thursday and we can use a fairly quiet Tuesday to take a first and largely stats based look at all three .

Format is the same in each division, two legged semi finals with the team with the highest league placing facing the one with the lowest and playing at home in the second leg.



Away goals do not count as a tie breaker, therefore, a 1-0 win has the same value as 5-4, extra time and penalties if scores are level after the two games, all finals are played at Wembley.



League 2:

4. Mansfield Town

5. Forest Green Rovers

6. Tranmere Rovers

7. Newport County

Last 13 seasons: The team finishing 4th has won twice (but only once in the last ten), the 5th and 6th placed teams have won three times and the team in 7th on five occasions, with all five of those coming in the last nine seasons.

In terms of h2h round robin (games between the four teams this season): Mansfield 11 points, FGR 11, Newport 8, Tranmere 2.



Points picked up over the second half of the season : Tranmere 40 (+6), Newport 36 (+1), FGR 35 (-4) and Mansfield 34 (-8) the figures in brackets indicate more(+) or less (-) points compared to first half, so Tranmere collected six more points from the second 23 games, Mansfield 8 fewer.

League 1:

3. Charlton Athletic

4. Portsmouth

5. Sunderland

6. Doncaster Rovers

Last 13 seasons: Teams finishing 4th have won five times, the team in 3rd four , 6th on three occasions, the side who ended in 5th just once and that was 13 seasons ago, so they are currently running at 0/12.

In terms of h2h round robin (games between the four teams this season): Sunderland 11, Charlton 11, Portsmouth 6 , Doncaster 3.

Points picked up over the second half of the season : Charlton 45 (+2), Sunderland 38 (-9), Portsmouth 37 (-14), Doncaster 34 (-5).

Championship:

3. Leeds United

4. West Bromwich Albion

5. Aston Villa

6. Derby County

Last 13 seasons: The third placed team has won seven times (53.8%), 4th twice, 5th three times, the team in sixth just once and not for the last eight seasons.The Championship is the highest scoring league in the EFL and the 12 games between these four teams have seen 9 produce 3+ goals and a whopping 8 go "over" the 3.5 goal line and the dozen fixtures average 3.75 . However, the prize is so great that teams seem loath to play their natural game in the hunt for a Premier League spot and the last 15 Championship post season games have seen only one produce 3 goals and the last ten ( two season) have totalled just 10 goals , with three games ending scoreless, four with exactly one goal and three with precisely two, five of the ten ended in draws after 90 minutes. In terms of h2h round robin (games between the four teams this season): Leeds 13, Villa 8, WBA 7, Derby 6.

Points picked up over the second half of the season : Villa 43 (+10), WBA 38 (-4), Leeds 35 (-13), Derby 35 (-4).

Finally, in terms of that second half of the season form, if we extend that over 46 games, the playoff contenders would have finished ...........

2nd Tranmere/ 7th Newport/ 8th FGR/ 11th Mansfield.

2.5 Charlton/ 6th Portsmouth/ 6th Sunderland/ 8th Doncaster.

2.5 Villa/ 5th WBA/ 8th Leeds/ 8th Derby.

With the five highlighted teams coming in at under post season level.