Ah, May. It’s the month when punters placing their outright bets back in August start to get a little sweaty palmed.
Will your season-long acca land in this month of reckoning? We’ve got our fingers, toes and eyes crossed for any readers who still have live outrights in the running.
For those that have bet exclusively on the EFL, most coupons – not including those involving teams in the play-offs – have now been settled.
It hasn’t been the easiest of seasons to predict, with 40/1 Lincoln City and 28/1 Bromley winning League One and League Two respectively.
But one tipster account, Bad Man’s Football Tips, came up trumps for their followers with a special that was offered exclusively by SkyBet.
- Southampton and Stockport County – Top Six Finish
- MK Dons – Top Seven Finish
- Sheffield Wednesday, Exeter City and Harrogate Town – Relegated
It was a six-fold, originated before a ball had been kicked in the 2025/26 season, that paid out at 100/1… with several screenshots shared on social media showing punters that had turned £10 into £1,000 thanks to the picks.
It can be a long and nerve-racking wait for outright bets to land each May… but when they do, what a satisfying feeling it is.
The Saints March On
The six selections mentioned ranged quite markedly in fear factor for backers.
Stockport County got off to a decent start by beating the fancied Bolton Wanderers on the opening day, and while their early results were something of a mixed bag, by the end of October they found themselves top of League One following a 3-0 victory at Port Vale.
From then until the end of the campaign, the Hatters only dropped out of the top six once – that was on the back of four defeats in five outings in February and March. But Dave Challinor was able to steady the ship, with a subsequent seven-game unbeaten run enough to propel Stockport back into the play-off places.
| Position | Team | Goal Diff. | Final Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Lincoln | +48 | 103 |
| 2nd | Cardiff | +40 | 91 |
| 3rd | Stockport | +13 | 77 |
| 4th | Bradford | +7 | 77 |
| 5th | Bolton | +18 | 75 |
| 6th | Stevenage | +3 | 75 |
As for Southampton, well…
They were expected to be amongst the contenders for the Championship title, with Will Still installed as head coach. But his short reign was an unmitigated disaster, with the Saints falling to as low as 21st in the table.
Still’s successor, Tonda Eckert, has been nothing short of a revelation. Appointed in December, he found his feet and then guided Southampton to an 18-game unbeaten streak, which included 14 victories.
Fourteenth on January 1st, by the last day of the season Southampton were up to fourth… and well primed to progress in the play-offs. Oh, and there was the small matter of them being just eleven minutes and injury time away from the FA Cup final.
| Position | Team | Goal Diff. | Final Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Coventry | +52 | 95 |
| 2nd | Ipswich | +33 | 84 |
| 3rd | Millwall | +15 | 83 |
| 4th | Southampton | +26 | 80 |
| 5th | Middlesbrough | +25 | 80 |
| 6th | Hull | +4 | 73 |
As for the MK Dons, things were never in doubt. From October until the end of the campaign, they were comfortably inside League Two’s top seven positions – a sticky start of just four wins in their opening ten games ultimately costing them the title, you’d wager.
| Position | Team | Goal Diff. | Final Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Bromley | +25 | 87 |
| 2nd | MK Dons | +41 | 86 |
| 3rd | Cambridge | +33 | 82 |
| 4th | Salford | +10 | 81 |
| 5th | Notts County | +22 | 80 |
| 6th | Chesterfield | +15 | 79 |
| 7th | Grimsby | +24 | 78 |
Going Down
Poor old Sheffield Wednesday.
Their relegation was confirmed pretty much from the get-go, with former owner Dejphon Chansiri effectively ransacking the club and leaving them with the bare bones of a squad.
Factor in cumulative points deductions for a variety of financial rule breaks and the Owls never stood a chance of avoiding the drop from the Championship.
| Position | Team | Goal Diff. | Final Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 22nd | Oxford | -14 | 47 |
| 23rd | Leicester | -10 | 46 (6 deducted) |
| 24th | Sheffield Weds | -60 | 0 (18 deducted) |
Exeter City have been scrapping hard all season long, and those that had backed the Grecians to be relegated from League One were sweating profusely by January.
Exeter were as high as tenth place in the table, with relegation seemingly an improbability. But from the end of January to the start of April, the South Coast club went on a hapless run of 15 games without a win – including one spell of six straight defeats.
That hauled the Grecians into the relegation conversation, where the likes of Burton Albion, Leyton Orient and Wimbledon had just enough about them to accumulate points.
With just one win in their final 20 games of the campaign, Exeter fell into the quicksand and could not find a way to stop themselves from sinking into League Two.
| Position | Team | Goal Diff. | Final Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21st | Exeter | -9 | 49 |
| 22nd | Port Vale | -25 | 42 |
| 23rd | Rotherham | -30 | 41 |
| 24th | Northampton | -35 | 35 |
There was a similar theme to Harrogate’s 2025/26 campaign.
An unbeaten run of four games to start the campaign were enough to lift the Yorkshire outfit up to eighth, but it wouldn’t be long before the rot set in.
A form line of W2 D4 L20 between late August and February is the perfect encapsulation of Harrogate’s season, and even a late rally of sorts – winning four of their last nine games – wasn’t enough to maintain their EFL status.
| Position | Team | Goal Diff. | Final Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21st | Tranmere | -25 | 41 |
| 22nd | Crawley | -24 | 40 |
| 23rd | Harrogate | -29 | 39 |
| 24th | Barrow | -33 | 36 |
It all goes to show there can still be value to outright season-long bets… as long as you’re willing to wait it out for nine months, that is.