2024/25				Overall									Home						Away
				P	W	D	L	F	A	Gdf	Pts	Form	P	W	D	L	F	A	P	W	D	L	F	A
	1		Birmingham City	46	34	9	3	84	31	+53	111	WWWW	23	19	4	0	47	11	23	15	5	3	37	20
	2		Wrexham	46	27	11	8	67	34	+33	92	WWWX	23	16	5	2	41	15	23	11	6	6	26	19
	3		Stockport County	46	25	12	9	72	42	+30	87	WWWX	23	16	4	3	42	22	23	9	8	6	30	20
	4		Charlton Athletic	46	25	10	11	67	43	+24	85	WLWW	23	15	6	2	38	16	23	10	4	9	29	27
	5		Wycombe Wanderers	46	24	12	10	70	45	+25	84	LLLW	23	12	6	5	27	18	23	12	6	5	43	27
	6		Leyton Orient	46	24	6	16	72	48	+24	78	WWWW	23	12	4	7	33	19	23	12	2	9	39	29

 

 

 

 

Anyway, I have a fairly strong opinion in the playoffs and that is for XXXXXX , who  XXXXX. First the numbers.....

 

Last 19 seasons (since we have been previewing them) :  Teams finishing 3rd have won eight times, the team in 4th five , 5th and 6th on three occasions each. 

 

 

Points picked up over the second half of the season :  Charlton Athletic 51 points ( +17 compared to their first 23 games), Stockport County 50 (+13) , Leyton Orient 44 (+10) and Wycombe Wanderers 34 (-16). It is very unusual for three teams to have double digit improvement through the second half of the campaign and it makes the Wycombe numbers look disastrous.

 

Across the last 10 games: Stockport 25 pts, Orient 25, Charlton 22 and Wycombe 16. Again, three teams to have 20+ points is not common.

 

In terms of h2h round robin (games between the four teams this season):  Charlton Athletic 14 points ( 4-2-0), Stockport County 8 pts (2-2-2), Wycombe 6 pts ( 2-0-4), Orient 6 pts (2-0-4). Where to start , as there is a lot in between the bare stats. Charlton were unbeaten and far and away the best, also, no team scored more or conceded fewer (3 was 5-8 goals better than the other three teams), County were winless at home, conceding 9 goals and Wanderers won the first two in early season, lost the last four including by a combined 1-7 to County (1-3) and Athletic (0-4) in their last two home games.

 

Wycombe really look up against it and all the numbers highlight that, they lost their head coach mid-season and after his departure suffered a 0.8 points per game drop off and he took all the self belief with him! Incoming boss Mike Dodds lost all six games against playoff contenders (top 7). Top scorer Richard Kone (18 goals) has not scored since March 18th and second top Daniel Udoh (9) only once since March 4th, no one else has scored more than 7 goals. 

 

I think County- Orient is closer than odds would suggest, with Stockport almost half the odds, recent form is close and the East London side are full of confidence and only champions Birmingham City have scored more goals. We have some history with County as we were tracking them in National League North and the National League and five years ago I wrote .....

 

 

Here they are three promotions later and with the chance to reach the Championship two years ahead of schedule! Don't say that you didn't read it here first!

 

 

Good luck!