QPR and Wigan take note – five play-off stats to savour

Having lost just two of their last 14 at home in the Championship this season Wigan Athletic look good to see off Queens Park Rangers and our stats suggest such a result could be one to watch.

The Latics are 6/5 to win on the night, with the visitors 9/4 for victory and the draw on at 9/4.

However with the play-offs proving difficult to predict, the news team at Ladbrokes has broken out the abacuses to bring you the key stats that matter.

Whether it’s Wigan Athletic, Queens Park Rangers, Derby County or latecomers Brighton, here are the numbers that matter ahead of tonight’s big clash at the DW Stadium:

1. Play-off winners start as they mean to go on – 11 of the last 20 winners won the first-leg of their play-off semi-final.

2. Comebacks are rare – Since 1994 just one play-off winner has overturned a semi-final first leg deficit, with Bolton Wanderers winning 2-0 at the Reebok in 1995 cancelling out a 2-1 first-leg Wolves victory to progress to a successful Wembley showdown.

3. The idea that the team finishing third tends to struggle in the play-offs is a myth – eight of the last 20 winners finished the season in third, with five of the last 10 finishing in that position just outside of the top-two.

4. It’s actually more unlucky to come fourth – just two of the last 20 play-off winners finished in this position with six of the previous winners positioned fifth and a further four finishing sixth.

5. Keeping a clean sheet is crucial to success – five of the last six teams to win the play-offs have done so off the back of a clean sheet in their semi-final openers.

Derby are the current 6/5 favourites to be promoted with Wigan and QPR joint-second in the betting at 11/4 and Brighton back at 8/1.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.

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