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Looking at the teams in our league next season
NPL Premier Division (22 teams): Alfreton Town, Ashton United, Avro, Bamber Bridge, Bury, Cleethorpes Town, Curzon Ashton, Emley, FC United, Gainsborough Trinity, Guiseley, Hyde United, Ilkeston Town, Lancaster City, Leek Town, Quorn, Redcar Athletic, Stockton Town, Warrington Rylands, Warrington Town, Whitby Town, Workington
At least 3 of the new teams are expected to do well, Bury, Redcar and Curzon Ashton.
So far we have lost Jamie Walker, Sam Essien, Robbie Fox and Sam Parker with probably more to come.
We don’t know for sure how Avro and Emley, Alfreton or Quorn will perform at Step 3.
I feel we are unlikely to finish above the below 8 teams which finished above us last season
FC United
Rylands
Stockton
Lancaster
Gainsborough
Leek
Cleethorpes
Ashton
I also feel we are unlikely to finish above
Bury
Redcar
Curzon Ashton
So that should be the 11 teams finishing in the top half of the table
The 4 teams we’re not sure about are
Avro
Emley
Alfreton
Quorn
Last season we finished above the following six teams who are still in our league:
Workington ,
Whitby,
Hyde,
Warrington Town,
Guiseley
Bamber Bridge
And we need to do that again this coming season to avoid finishing in the bottom four and relegation
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Early indications are that we are in for a long hard season and Tristram Whitman did his best to lower expectations at the Supporters Group AGM. Of course with a new manager and a fresh team, we supporters just don’t know what lies ahead until we know the players coming in and see how they perform in the pre-season friendlies. I fear we could be in for an exciting season of struggling to retain our Step 3 status but I really do hope Tristram proves me wrong.
* My Earliest Predicted 26-27 Northern Premier League table
1 Bury
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2 Warrington Rylands
3 FC United
4 Redcar
5 Stockton
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6 Curzon Ashton
7 Ashton Utd
8 Gainsborough
9 Lancaster
10 Cleethorpes
11 Leek
12 Avro
13 Guiseley
14 Quorn
15 Warrington Town
16 Alfreton
17 Emley
18 Ilkeston
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19 Hyde
20 Bamber Bridge
21 Whitby
22 Workington
* Subject to amendment over the coming weeks
Last edited by Matchman (16/5/2026 5:33 AM)
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Looking forward to away matches at the new grounds and revisiting old grounds.
This season’s big ground is Gigg Lane, Bury
3 seaside trips Whitby, Cleethorpes and Redcar.
Always particularly enjoy visiting FC United, Workington and Gainsborough.
Bank Holiday fixtures should be against Alfreton and Quorn
Last edited by Matchman (21/5/2026 2:26 AM)