Quote Originally Posted by frogmiller View Post
When the League tinkered with the promotion and relegations by introducing the play-offs it seemed a barmy idea. But it's brought so much joy, disapointment and anger with the promotions and relegations.
Was t Newcastle who were 10+ points above the 4th place club and didn't go up? Back then it was ubfair but it gave the chasing teams sonething to play for.

Obiously as a club the 3 trips to Wembley have been great but who's been to more finals than any other club?

Which clubs haven't tasted Wembley via the play offs?

What surprising stats do you have about the play offs?

Are we the only country with a play-off system?

It's scenarios like the Newcastle one that fuel football mythology like "3rd place curse" as regards play-offs.

These figures are a few years old now (probably a newer version somewhere) but for the first 27 years of the play-offs the stats for playoff winners by league position were as follows:

Position Championship League One League Two Total Percentage
3rd (4th in L2) 10 9 13 32 39.50%
4th (5th in L2) 5 7 5 17 21%
5th (6th in L2) 7 5 4 16 19.80%
6th (7th in L2) 5 6 5 16 19.80%

so - the team finishing 3rd has triumphed most in all three divisions. The team finishing 4th (or equivalent)has been the second most successful.
So although people may believe in the 3rd place curse, statistically it doesn't exist.