Charlton travel to Rochdale on Saturday afternoon where they will be hoping to secure their position in the Sky Bet League One play-off places (5.30pm).
The match will be broadcast live on Sky Sports and Lee Bowyer’s men require a point to absolutely assure themselves of a top-six finish.
The Addicks, in reality, could still finish in fifth, sixth or seventh and below are ALL of Saturday’s permutations…
For Charlton to finish fifth
Charlton have to beat Rochdale at Spotland and hope that Scunthorpe United lose in their match against Bradford City.
Alternatively, Charlton would finish fifth if Scunthorpe and Bradford contested a 0-0 draw and the Addicks beat Rochdale by a seven-goal margin. If Scunthorpe and Bradford contested a score draw, Charlton would need to beat Rochdale by an eight-goal margin to finish fifth.
For Charlton to finish sixth
Charlton will finish sixth if they draw at Rochdale. Charlton will also finish sixth if they win at Rochdale and Scunthorpe win against Bradford.
Charlton will finish sixth if they win at Rochdale and Scunthorpe draw with Bradford, providing the Addicks do not win by a seven or eight-goal margin.
Charlton will finish sixth if they lose at Rochdale and Plymouth Argyle fail to win at Gillingham. Charlton will also finish sixth if they lose at Rochdale and Plymouth win at Gillingham, providing there is not a six or seven-goal swing in the two clubs’ goal difference.
For Charlton to finish seventh
Charlton would have to lose at Rochdale and Plymouth would have to win at Gillingham. As well as this, there would also have to be a six or seven-goal swing in the two clubs’ goal difference. The Addicks’ goal difference currently stands at +8 with Argyle’s on +2.
If Charlton and Plymouth finished level on points and had the same goal difference, the next deciding factor would be goals scored. Currently, Charlton have scored 58 goals in League One this season and Plymouth have scored 56.
One more scenario is possible, which is explained below.
A play-off for the play-offs?
Charlton and Plymouth would have to contest a play-off match at a neutral ground to determine who finishes sixth, if the Addicks were to lose 4-0 at Rochdale and Argyle were to win 2-0 at Gillingham.
This would make the clubs’ points tallies, goal difference, goals scored and head-to-head records identical. The play-off match would most likely be contested on Monday, May 7th or Tuesday, May 8th.