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!