Football fans across the country have been predicting their teams’ fortunes thanks to a regional publisher’s online tool.

The Trinity Mirror central data unit has introduced its league predictor for 2017-18, which allows supporters to work out where their club will finish should results go the way they think they will.

Readers of at least 13 different TM regional news websites choose whether there will be a home win, away win or draw in all remaining fixtures affecting the Premier League title race, the same division’s relegation battle, or the Championship promotion race.

The gadget then works out final table standings based on the results they have predicted.

Supporters use the gadget to predict remaining fixtures

Trinity Mirror sport data journalist David Dubas-Fisher has worked on the project along with coder Carlos Novoa.

David told HTFP: “The data unit first produced the league predictor two years ago, when Leicester City were pushing for the title. We noticed that people tended to make predictions about who was going to win the league without really considering the matches that were left to be played.

“In our predictor readers have to go through each match and say whether it’ll be a home win, away win or a draw. It then calculates the final league table based on those predictions.

“We designed it specifically so that it was simple, user-friendly and worked on mobile devices. When we were testing it we found that people were actually surprised by the league predictions that they made based on match outcomes and how they differed from what they’d initially expected.

“It was a big hit for us back in 2016 and has become one of the data unit’s most successful gadgets and a staple of Trinity Mirror football coverage at this time of year.”

Titles offering the predictor so far include Newcastle daily The Chronicle, Wales Online, the Manchester Evening News and the Teesside Gazette.

David added: “The gadget appears to be well liked by fans with readers on some sites spending an average of almost four minutes on the page.

“Many fans like to take a screenshot of their predictions and share it on social media, particularly if their predictions chuck up something surprising, like Manchester United winning the league.”