Brentford will make the play-offs this season.

That is according to the latest prediction from Five Thirty Eight – the brainchild of Nate Silver, a world famous statistician.

The Bees have targeted promotion to the top flight this campaign but after a poor start to the Championship they find themselves seven points adrift of the top two, making the play-off seem their most likely route to the Premiership.

Leeds United who currently sit third on goal difference are expected to join league leaders West Brom in getting promoted automatically, while Fulham, Preston and Swansea City will join Thomas Frank’s men in the play-offs.

The Bees have seen an upturn in form recently with four wins in their last five outings with a home tie against Reading at the weekend.

There was bad news for Barnsley, Luton Town and Middlesbrough however who occupied the bottom three and were fancied for the drop.

Surrey Comet:

American Silver who made his name in sports statistics, developing software to forecast performances and career development of Major League Baseball stars before launching his blog ‘Five Thirty Eight’ in 2008.

Using similar forecasting trends Silver went on to correctly predict the 2008 and 2012 Presidential Elections, earning a spot in the 100 most influential people in the world list.