Stats gurus forecast how many points Sheffield Wednesday, Sunderland and Portsmouth will end up with - and their chances of promotion

The world-renowned number crunchers at FiveThirtyEight have scoured the form, recent history and squad quality of each third tier team to offer a comprehensive run-through of each team’s chances from a purely statistical point of view.

And things look reasonably promising for Sheffield Wednesday, whose form since defeat at Shrewsbury on January 2 has taken them to seven wins in nine and to sixth place in the table.

The FiveThirtyEight algorithms at that stage gave the Owls just a 37% chance of making the playoffs at that stage, with just a 14% chance of promotion.

As things stand those chances have skyrocketed to a 73% chance of playoff qualification, with a 31% chance of promotion back to the Championship at the first attempt.

The numbers mean they believe only the top three teams – Rotherham United (98%), Wigan Athletic (68%) and MK Dons (41%) – have a better chance of promotion than Wednesday.

They forecast a final Owls points tally of 82, leaving them in fourth place and set to take on Oxford United in the playoffs, with MK Dons and Sunderland battling out in the other semi-final.

Further down the table, Sunderland’s coupon-busting win over Wigan over the weekend has improved their statistical chances. FiveThirtyEight have them finishing in sixth on 77 points with a 53% chance of promotion and a 14% chance of promotion.

Portsmouth are forecast to finish 11th on 69 points. The data suggests they have a 9% chance of making the top six and a 3% chance of promotion.