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NPL Premier Division 2026-27. -  The New Teams 

Relegated : Curzon Ashton and Alfreton
Curzon Ashton could count themselves unlucky to be relegated as the only time that found themselves in the drop zone was on the final Saturday. In mid February, Curzon were a comfortable 10th in the league with 42 points from 31 games but their next 15 matches produced only another 10 points. 
Alfreton by contrast, spent the whole season around the bottom four and looked doomed until a monumental effort saw them unbeaten in their last seven matches giving them the possibility of an incredible escape.Both teams met on the final Saturday and both needed a victory to stay up but a draw resulted in them both being relegated.  Ilkeston played against both Curzon and Alfreton last season in Cup competitions losing to Curzon in the FA Trophy and beating Alfreton in the Derbyshire Senior Cup.   

Promoted : Avro, Bury, Emley and Redcar
Bury are the team with expectations to win the NPL Premier Division next season. Last season they won the NPL West with 90 points from 42 matches and their average home attendance was 3698.
Avro ran them close ending up just two points behind them and were promoted via the playoffs. 
Redcar were NPL East champions with a massive 105 points. They went top of their league after 10 matches and remained there for the rest of the season. They scored 140 goals and lost only 3 matches.
Emley were surprise winners of the NPL East playoffs after finishing 3rd, 11 points fewer than 2nd placed Matlock.    

Moved from Southern League : Quorn
Quorn swapped places with Rushall after just one year in the Southern Premier Central where they finished 8th after promotion to Step 3 the previous season. They were in with a chance of making the playoffs until March but one point from their final four matches saw them slip to 8th. They’re likely to find it tougher in the Northern Premier.


 

Last edited by Matchman (31/5/2026 8:36 AM)