I think it's safe to suggest that us City fans are happier at the potential prospect, if we can get there, of a playoff tie against West Brom, than the thought of playing Brentford.

Having a free few minutes, I thought I'd look at how teams that have missed out on automatic promotion have fared in the end of season lottery.

Criteria - a team has to have had more than a week in the top 2 in the last few weeks of the season and been in a decent position to challenge for automatic promotion since February. I've not been extremely specific, I was just after an overview.

I found 19 teams that had missed out on automatic promotion to the top flight since the birth of the playoffs in 1987, so roughly half of all seasons has seen a side slip up at the death.

Of those 19, 10 lost in the playoff semis, 3 lost in a playoff final while the remaining 6 put the disappointment behind them to win the playoffs.

Leeds (last season) and Wolves (in 2002) are the biggest examples of teams being clear and looking certs for automatic promotion all season. Both lost in the semis. In 2011 we were in the top 2 more than we were out of it, yet missed out and lost in the semis. Bristol City were top or second for most of the 2007/08 season but missed out on the last day and ended up losing a playoff final.

Teams that have gone on to win the playoffs after missing out on the playoffs tended to be well clear and part of a 3-horse race that went on for some time.

Ipswich are the side that have missed out on automatic promotion the most (3 times). They at least won one of those playoff campaigns.

One of the more bizarre seasons was the 1987/88 campaign, where 3 points separated the top 5 with 4 games to go. All those sides had spells in the top 2 over the final month or so. Millwall won the title, Villa finished 2nd on goals scored where 1 point separated 2nd from 5th!