Friday 20 May 2016 12:42, UK
History was made in the Football League play-off semi-finals as all the best-placed teams were beaten for the first time.
Brighton, Walsall and Accrington Stanley all suffered play-off heartbreak, losing to Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley and AFC Wimbledon respectively.
The Seagulls had finished 15 points ahead of Wednesday in the Championship, Walsall 10 points ahead of Barnsley in League One and Accrington 10 clear of the Dons in League Two.
But, for the first time in the play-offs, none of the three teams who finished highest made the final.
The last third-placed team to miss out on the Championship final was Nottingham Forest in 2009/10 while in League One it was MK Dons in 2008/09, with the final for the last five seasons being contested by third vs fourth.
The previous two sides to finish fourth in League Two (where there are three automatic promotion positions) had made the final, but the five before them had all missed out.
Since the introduction of the play-offs in 1987 there have been several examples of teams missing out on promotion after finishing well ahead of their rivals in the regular season.
However, the stats before this year's play-offs favoured progress for at least one of Brighton, Walsall or Accrington.
In fact, 39.5% of the teams that had finished in the top play-off place across the three divisions had been promoted.
Only 21% of teams in the second play-off spot had been successful while those in the bottom two places went up 19.8% of the time.
In the Championship, 37% of the sides who had finished third were promoted, with Norwich, West Ham and Swansea all going up to the Premier League in recent seasons after missing out on the top two.
A good omen for Sheffield Wednesday is that the last three sides to finish sixth and reach the final have all gone on to win promotion, while only once in the last 17 seasons has the team finishing fourth - Hull this year - gone up.
In League One, where Walsall missed out on second place by a point, the play-offs have proved more unpredictable in the past.
Before this year, teams in third had gone up 33.30% of the time, a slightly better success rate than those in fourth (25.90%), fifth (18.50%) and sixth (22.20%).
But Accrington had more reason to be optimistic as almost half (48.10%) of the teams that had finished fourth in League Two had gone up through the play-offs.
Those in fifth (18.50%), sixth (14.80%) and seventh (18.50%) had not enjoyed anywhere near as much success.
Who will win promotion this year from the play-offs? Watch all the finals live on Sky Sports, starting with Hull v Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, May 28.
