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10 reasons why Hull City will win the play-offs
Nothing reinvigorates tired limbs like the promise of cash, but not even pure new money can turn ordinary grafters into great artists. The play offs are the most tempting cash dangle in the history of the game, offering in excess of 40 million quid to whoever can beat the candy out of the piñata.
Even the most jaded lower league pro finds himself able to postpone thoughts of Mediterranean beaches in exchange for the prospect of a nice fat bonus. The Championship has marketed itself very successfully this season, and has convinced a lot of people that it is "good". It is not.
Anyone who witnessed newly promoted Stoke's failure to beat useless Leicester on the last day of the season will already know that the Premier League is no place for sides like that. The same goes for those teams scampering around in the playoffs – Hull's big fat and ancient Dean Windass may be gambolling like a spring lamb, but he, and all the other promotion hopefuls need an injection of something other than cash to spare them a season of utter humiliation.
The Wager fancies Hull, but at the expense of their dignity.
Disagree? Then get on Bristol City – or even Palace. Watford, you can sit down now.
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1. Watford won't win it because if the season had started on November 24, they would have finished in a pitiful 19th place.
2. chickendinner superfact: Crystal Palace won't win because in the last three years the team with the best points haul in their final five league games has not only failed to win the play-offs but have failed to even reach the final.
3. Bristol City won't win because ten years have passed since the team finishing fourth in the Championship table has gone on to win the play-offs.
4. In each of the last two seasons the play-off winners have finished third in the league.
5. From January onwards Hull City have been the best team in the Championship.
6. And they'll have no trouble overcoming Watford in the second-leg - they beat them 3-0 at home in March.
7. Watford have won just one of their last nine away games.
8. Only once in the last six years has a first-leg deficit been overturned (West Ham against Ipswich, 2004) and even then that was with the second-leg being at home.
9. Not to mention that never in the history of the Championship play-offs has a team overcome a home defeat to progress.
10. Hull are experts at winning promotion - they've done it twice in the last five years.
Championship Play-offs, best odds
