The fans have spoken, Championship play-offs will have a surprise winner with 35% chance of success

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The Championship play-offs kick off tonight, and we’ve been getting the thoughts of fans across the game to determine who will come out on top and seal promotion at the end of the month.

A long and exciting season is still not quite over yet, with four teams still having everything to play for in the Championship play-offs.

Third-placed Sheffield United go in as favourites, while fourth-placed Sunderland are in the worst form of all the play-off teams.

Meanwhile, Coventry City will fancy their chances after a strong run of late, and Bristol City remain the underdogs under Liam Manning.

The EFL Analysis team predicted the Championship play-offs already, but now it’s the fans’ turn.

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Fans vote on Championship play-offs outcome

All week, we’ve been running a poll on Twitter/X to gauge the opinions of fans of the EFL, and as we prepare to sit down and watch the Championship play-offs tonight, we’ve tallied the results and found a shocking winner.

After 223 votes from a variety of supporters, it is Sunderland who come out on top with 35% of the votes, or roughly 78 votes.

Coventry City were a fair bit behind in second place with 29.6% (66 votes) of the votes, and Sheffield United were close in third with 28.7% or 64 votes.

Bristol City bring up the rear, with supporters clearly giving them no chance at all to triumph in the play-offs. The Robins picked up just 6.7% of the votes, which is equivalent to around 15 people backing them.

Of course, these results could simply mean that Sunderland fans are more active on social media and wanted to back their own team, so we must be wary of that.

Indeed, among the replies, Norwich fan Nick wrote: “Coventry feel like the team with the momentum to me.”

Another supporter suggested it will be either “Coventry or Sheffield United” who end up winning the play-offs.

• READ MORE: The Championship’s most and least successful play-off teams, including four-time winners

Sunderland would need a miraculous turnaround to win the play-offs

Honestly, given the terrible form Sunderland are in, it would be one of the biggest surprises of the season if they were to even get past Coventry City in the semi-finals, never mind win the play-offs entirely.

They’ve lost their last five matches heading into the play-offs, which is not ideal, and haven’t even scored a single goal in their last three games.

While Sunderland’s play-off record is boosted by League One success in 2022, they also go up against a Coventry side that they just can’t seem to beat.

They’ve lost five and drawn five against the Sky Blues in the last ten meetings, and Frank Lampard certainly seems to have the Black Cats’ number with two wins and a draw already this season.

Sunderland will fear Coventry’s hat-trick hero Haji Wright, who put them to the sword in the recent 3-0 win.

But, if we know anything about the Championship, it’s that you can never truly predict any outcome, so we’ll have to wait and see if Sunderland can spring the ultimate surprise this month.