How Peterborough United would fare if any of the weird and wonderful ideas to decide promotion from League One were implemented

Here the PT looks at them all with a keen eye on whether or not they favour Posh!

THE POOLS PANEL

Chatty Accrington Stanley chairman Andy Holt reckons a team of experts could be drafted in to predict the results of the remaining League One matches.

It is of course nonsense as finding League One ‘experts’ who satisfy every team with a vested interest in promotion or relegation issues would be nigh on impossible.

Maybe they could get that company who organised the virtual Grand National to play out the games.

Anyway Posh wouldn’t fear honest forecasters. Posh’s home form and the standard of their remaining opponents at the Weston Homes Stadium would surely deliver five wins as would away games at Bolton and Rochdale.

Seven wins would probably get Posh into the top two no matter what the predicted results of the two toughest remaining road trips to Sunderland and Coventry.

Posh verdict: Bring it on!

TOP EIGHT HAVE A PLAY-OFF

Sky Sports claimed last weekend the top eight in the three EFL divisions could have play-offs to decide promotion.

I’m sure League One leaders Coventry would object as would Doncaster and Ipswich who are sat outside the top eight, but are far from out of the-play-off race.

Posh needn’t be overly-worried though. They have picked up 18 points from 12 games against the other teams in the top eight, that’s 1.5 points per game and the third best record after Fleetwood and Coventry.

It’s not all good for Posh as they only have two of the current top eight to play so playing out the season certainly favours them.

Posh verdict: Better than nothing.

EXTRA SUBS

Ipswich Town manager Paul Lambert has suggested having 11 available subs, while FIFA have now suggested five instead of three could be used to guard against injury and fatigue when playing several games in quick succession.

This would favour clubs with big squads and the Posh squad is deep enough.

Posh verdict: Suits us.

POINTS PER GAME AVERAGE

Blatantly unfair as it fails to take into account the standard of opponent left to play or the number of home and away games already played/still to play.

Posh would drop out of the play-off places using this system and Wycombe would vault from eighth to third.

Posh verdict: No use to us.

POINTS PER GAME RUGBY STYLE

But adopting the points per game average used by the English Rugby Union to determine their final league placings would lead to a more favourable outcome for Posh.

The rugby union formula calculated the average number of points gained from home games and away games separately so far this season.

Those averages are then applied to the remaining home and away games to give a fairer final table average.

Posh would move up a place to fifth using this system, while Wycombe would clamber into sixth and Portsmouth would drop out of the play-off places.

Posh verdict: Seen worse!

VOID FOR ETHICAL REASONS

Luton Town chief executive Gary Sweet put this one out there this week. Nothing to do of course with his club sitting next-to-bottom of the Championship with no manager.

Any suggestion that football clubs have ‘acting ethically’ as a priority is laughable.

I’d have more respect for clubs like Luton and Southend if they just said they were favouring a system that would suit their own clubs rather than hide behind a pandemic. After all the vast majority of clubs are doing exactly that whether they want the season to finish or not.

Posh verdict: Give it a rest.