The Diasboro COTS Challenge 2025/26 – Results
Well. Hasn’t this been the most unexpectedly interesting end to the season for Boro fans to follow. A worrying failure to convert dominance into victory during the last dozen games of the season leading to a last day hope for a miracle to claim 2nd place ; following that up with all of the shenanigans with Southhampton (officially rebranded from Saints to Sinners) to whom we succumbed after having failed to put to the sword in what was otherwise perhaps the best first half of football at the Riverside all season; an unexpected re-instatement (when did the authorities ever make a decision that actually favoured Boro?) that led to the disappointing but perhaps appropriate reversal to Hull at Wembley. What on earth could follow all of that?
That last question was, of course, rhetorical as there is the annual unveiling of the Diasboro Clairvoyant of the Season to take place still and here we go…
For those that missed this last August, this challenge tests how well each entrant has been able to predict the key outcomes in this season’s EFL Championship, all before the season actually started. So, which team was going to win the league; who would be runner up; which teams would end up in the top 6; which teams were to go down; which team(s) would overperform or underperform based on their previous season’s finish; and, of course, where would the Boro finish in the final table. I have been tracking everyone’s predictions from August throughout the season, ultimately to find this year’s Clairvoyant of the Season (COTS !)
So without further ado and with a small reminder that the maximum points available in the COTS Challenge for getting every prediction bang on is 200, let us congratulate:
In 3rd place with 59.5 points (29.79% accuracy), last year’s winner, MW in Darwin
Runner up with 70 points (35% accuracy), Peter Surtees
Clairvoyant of the Season 2025/26 and with 74 points (37% accuracy), the Pig and Whistle’s very best, Forever Dormo!!!
With an average score of just 42.8 (21.4% accuracy) it must be said that we have performed, as a collective, much worse this year than in previous seasons.
Last season MW in Darwin was top with a monstrous 152 points, while the average score was 82 points and even Jarkko in last spot last year with 45 points scored more than this season’s average.
The year before it was KP in Spain at the head of the pack on 126.5 points, and where the average was 77.8 points. Funnily enough FD came bottom of the pile that year with –38 points (yes, that is a minus sign before the number !!).
So, what went wrong for our usually pretty healthy ability to predict how the season will unfold?
Not one of us predicted the Champions this year, in fact only 2 of us thought Coventry would win automatic promotion. More of us (14 in all) did have Ipswich going up automatically, but probably as champions!
As for predicting who would finish in the top 6, only Clive Hurren and Jarkko predicted 4 of the final top 6 placed teams. 7 others did have 3 correct top 6 predictions. As for the rest of us… well what can I say?
At the other end of the table we were a bit more accurate in our predictions with 14 predicting the inevitable for Wednesday, and 10 of us also picking out Oxford United. Funnily enough there were 8 predictions that Hull City would go down and just look where they will be next season! By the same token, there were 9 predictions that Leicester would finish in the top 6 and look down to where they will be playing next season!
Looking out for “over achievers” in the season, 5 of us did pick out Wrexham, but only 1 other person, Jarkko, was right in this category predicting Derby County.
We did a little, but only a little, better when it came to predicting the “under achievers”, 5 of us picking Sheffield Wednesday and 2 calling out Blackburn. A shout out to Clive Hurren and MW in Darwin who did predict Leicester at least to under-achieve.
What was interesting last August as the predictions rolled in, very few people had much confidence in how well Boro were going to do this season. I was the lone predictor of a 2nd place finish and how disappointed am I that we stumbled at the end of the season. Unfortunately for me there are no points awarded for, having held onto 2nd place for the lion’s share of the season. OFB was another with optimism for us back at the start of the year, with his prediction of a 3rd place finish. But, and is anyone reading this going to be surprised, Jarkko (of course!!) was spot on with his 5th place prediction. No one else had us in the top 6. I wonder what will we all think for next season?
So, congratulations again to Forever Dormo for being the best of the bunch this time around.
Here below are the final positions for everyone, along with how the fortunes ebbed and flowed over the season. Thanks to everyone for joining in and I hope we can win a few more entries next season.
Well done FD and many thanks PNM for organising the challenge again; as for my performance, the least said the better. 😎
Thank you Powmill that was very entertaining and given the unpredictability of this season I am unsurprised that the scores were relatively low. Congratulations to FD.
Many thanks, Powmill. Very enjoyable as ever. Congratulations to Dormo!
I shocked and astounded that I ended up in 4th place, usually I am 4th from bottom 😂, thanks to Powmill Naemore for once again for running the COTS challenge.
Come on BORO.
Well it's a long time since I came in the top two in anything. Second year 80 yards hurdles, springs to mind most readily and that lingers in the memory only because of the way first place was cruelly snatched away by someone who had the audacity to be better than me.
Top work, Powmill - thanks for running it again and well done to Dormo!
It's a rare year where I suspect a number of us are quite happy to have been proved very wrong!
Many thanks for the final analysis Powmill and I was predictably rubbish at predicting who was going to do well this season - around 10% accuracy I think! No surprise since I had Leicester as automatic promotion candidates and didn't even mention Coventry with Boro down in 12th - still at least I ended up above zero points...
Thanks for running the challenge Powmill. The results show that this season was a more wide open league than last season's, where two teams got 100 points. I was sucked in by the Wrexham and Birmingham hype and predicted accordingly. Looking forward to next season's challenge.
Thanks Powmill for your brilliant initiative and hard work. I was somewhat disappointed with my own performance since I clearly remember all of the predictions I managed to get right but seem to have blotted out my blunders. Funny that. Congrats to Dormo and Peter
Thanks Peter. Your posts are always really interesting and often very funny, as this one is. I’m glad you let me persuade you to join up!
It was not only a miserable wet day on High Cup Nick, it was also the day I did my ankle in and had to hobble all the way back to the village and my car. It hindered my walking for 6 months and also prevented me from doing a planned trek in Patagonia. Not to worry: I swapped it for a wildlife trip to Costa Rica - no walking involved - and had a brilliant time! Seeing sloths ‘in action’ made me realise just how inactive I had become since my injury. All sorted now, thank goodness!
@powmillnaemore. Thank you as always Powmill for all the time and hard work putting this all together.
As for my position in the table, at least I can say, I did improve quarter on quarter.
Maybe we could have a later start this coming season, possibly after game ten. That would give us all a more realistic chance of picking some correct teams, especially for me.
Plus when does the season start in relation to the window closing. We just may sign a "Messi" or two, on the last day which would have a bearing on our picks.
As in golf, should I not get a higher handicap, say 36 points start?
@powmillnaemore. Thank you as always Powmill for all the time and hard work putting this all together.
As for my position in the table, at least I can say, I did improve quarter on quarter.
Maybe we could have a later start this coming season, possibly after game ten. That would give us all a more realistic chance of picking some correct teams, especially for me.
Plus when does the season start in relation to the window closing. We just may sign a "Messi" or two, on the last day which would have a bearing on our picks.
As in golf, should I not get a higher handicap, say 36 points start?
That has given me an idea. We could have the COTS as normal, predictions received before a ball has been kicked, but maybe I will add a COTS supplement offering everyone the chance to refine their predictions after the first 8 or 9 or 10 games played...
Wow, Clive. I knew it was bad, but not as bad as that. That would cement my place as the organiser and head coach of the worst walk in history, or least the sub-set of history governed by that particular handwritten spreadsheet.
😂😂. No worries, mate! The injury was absolutely not your fault! I was even wearing my heavy duty boots that day, and they should have protected me!
Well hello, again, Playmates, after a self-imposed silence from me! I'd had enough of football, was on "holiday" for 9 nights in Corbridge when the weather was unexpectedly good, and I didn't have my laptop with me (and typing messages on my mobile 'phone is less than perfect for my fat fingers). When I got back home last weekend I had lots to do, so this is the first time I have had the opportunity to come back to the Blog.
Thanks very much to @powmillnaemore for the hard work that producing the COTS forecasts must represent. I think it would surely add too much to your burden to expect you to prepare the whole prediction exercise and then to have to interpolate an additional forecasting exercise at the end of the Transfer Window or after 8-10 games which would allow people to refine their predictions in light of what will have happened since the original predictions were submitted. The COTS scheme must already occupy a lot of your time, as it is.
I must say that to have finished at the top of the competition at the end of the season is more than I had any reason to expect. Previous seasons have not seen me distinguish myself at all. It was as though I had a faulty crystal ball. I suspect being a little more "realistic" about Boro's prospects for the season which has just ended helped me but I may have simply been lucky in a season where many things happened which would have raised eyebrows if predicted at the outset. .
That was a really weird season, wasn't it? No reason to expect great heights and then to suddenly find the club, for most of the season, in the Top Two, was a surprise. Unfortunately it gave perhaps false hope that THIS might be the season where everything would come right. Sadly it did not. The period of Boro's decline in results, when it really mattered, seemed to coincide with the period when Hayden Hackney became unavailable for selection.
I would have preferred it if Boro had won the league or finished second, to my winning the predictions game! Ah well! We pick ourselves up. We dust ourselves down. We enjoy the cricket and summer pursuits and maybe even develop some appetite for the World Cup when the time comes. Then, next season, we go again. Let's hope 2026-27 is Boro's season rather than FD's!