League One Season Predictions - 2020/21

League One Season Predictions - 2020/21 

Where Are We Up To?

At the start of the season John, Tim, Matt & Nick thought they’d have a go at predicting the outcome of the League One table – yes all 24 teams not just where we thought the Seasiders would finish!

After the pre-season performances against Liverpool and Everton as well as the decent performance in the EFL Trophy versus Stoke City, optimism was high amongst the podcast team that the Seasiders would perform well under Neil Critchley and this was certainly reflected in the panel’s predictions for the Tangerines!

The Top Two

Although there was obviously much discussion about who would finish where, it wasn’t surprising that the same team names came up as those that we all fancied to do well.  The table below shows who the podcast team predicted promotion for:

Safe to say we all thought Peterborough were going to have a successful season! Posh are a perennially free-scoring team and although having lost Ivan Toney to Brentford in the summer, Posh recruited another League One top goal scorer in Jonson Clarke-Harris so we all seemingly thought that there momentum would not be altered by Toney’s departure.

Oxford narrowly missed out on promotion last season and were arguably the best League One footballing team of 2020 so it was no surprise that they were in the thoughts of the panel together with Pompey who with wily old fox Kenny Jackett at the helm are always a good bet for play offs as a minimum.

Play-Off predictions were as follows:

 Oxford and Portsmouth again in the thoughts of the guys and seems like the panel fancied the chances of local team Fleetwood as well as ’Pool! Fleetwood despite their size are a well run club with a good strike force in Ched Evans & Paddy Madden were no doubt in the thought processes of those who selected the Cod Army to reach the play-offs.

Sunderland, the “basket case” of League One were favoured by Tim & Nick to reach the play offs as were Ipswich for Matt & John…..both “big clubs” so surely both had chances? Only Tim from the panel fancied relegated Hull City…much was to depend on how the side from Humberside were to adapt from regular beatings in The Championship and whether they’d stick with Manager Grant McCann.

Moving onto the other end of the table and the panel’s teams favoured for relegation read as follows:

Looking this table, it seemed that no one gives Northampton, Wimbledon or Rochdale any chances of survival!

MK Dons had struggled last season which persuaded Nick & John to end the franchises hopes of survival whilst Wigan’s off pitch activities obviously affected John’s opinion that they’d struggle on the pitch also.

Matt selected Crewe to struggle mainly based on his thought that the Crewe kids won’t be able to cope with League One as they’ve history of yo-yoing between Leagues One & Two. Tim selected Burton because it sounds like his namesake film director as well as a dislike of Carling!

So here’s the table as predicted by the guys:

 So Where Are We Now Then….?

Well Covid has taken its toll with most teams cancelling games, injuries have hit the Seasiders hard, Fleetwood have self-imploded with Joey Barton & Ched Evans leaving the club and Lincoln are undoubtedly the surprise of the season so far and have been in the top two all season..who saw that coming!??!

Hull, Peterborough, Pompey, Doncaster & Sunderland make up the top 6.

Oxford laboured at the start of the season but as at 15th February are now in seventh after spending the first dozen games languishing in the bottom four.

Undoubtedly disappointingly for all Seasiders was the first 10 games of the season which saw Blackpool struggle at the wrong end of the table and despite a mini-revival at the end of Autumn, recent form and a lack of fixtures has seen the Seasiders slip to 16th in the table. Optimists will point out that if Blackpool win their games in hand then the Play Offs aren’t far of reach!

Only John has reason to be cheerful about Crewe as the Railwaymen sit in 11th although won’t be happy that Swindon are at the wrong end of the table.

The bottom four currently read: Swindon, Wigan, Northampton & Burton.

Swindon lost Manager Richie Wellens who went to Salford early in the season (the only surprise there was that he’s not the Seasiders manager given that we took several Swindon players in the close season!), which won’t have helped their situation. Wigan, as predicted by John are struggling on the pitch as well as off it and still have no owner.

Burton although bottom have recently appointed Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink and have had a recent upturn in results especially their recent 2-0 away win at Northampton.

Northampton are a side that look doomed. Keith Curle has been sacked, the aforementioned loss to Burton and without a win yet in 2021 means that the panels prediction for relegation looks a good one.  As at 12/02/2021 here’s where we are then:

To add a bit of dodgy maths to this table, by adding up each podcasters overall difference number and applying that to the overall number of positions in the league gives an idea of accuracy of each podcasters prediction:

With a congested fixture calendar ahead and injuries, Covid and suspensions sure to have an effect on results, there’s still plenty to play for!!

And there's more...

Watch the podcast where we (badly) explained the above!