The league line up for the 2024/25 season in the PitchingIn NPL West has been confirmed.
The headlines are:
- There will be 22 teams, up from 20 in the 23/24 season
- 3 teams are promoted: Congleton Town join from the Midlands Premier and Wythenshawe and Wythenshawe Town from the North West Counties Premier
- 2 teams are relegated from the NPL Premier: Atherton Collieries and Stafford Rangers
- Hednesford Town, who were relegated 7 points adrift from safety, have been given a reprieve and will stay in the NPL West. This spans from the decision of Loughborough Dynamo taking voluntary relegation from Step 4 for financial reasons. That meant that there was always going to be at least one team at Step 4 that will stay up despite being relegated, and the Pitmen are the lucky recipients.
All other teams are as they were in 2023/24. Fixtures should arrive roughly in the middle of June.
Meanwhile, the Dabbers have announced their first pre-season fixture for 2024. Nantwich will face Bury FC at The Swansway Stadium on Tuesday 16th July at 7.45pm. The Shakers narrowly missed out on promotion from Step 5 last season and should provide tough opposition with a large passionate fanbase too. It’ll be a full circle moment, as the Dabbers last faced Bury near the very bitter end of their financial strife in 2019 when they put up an entire squad of trialists.
We’ll be announcing the rest of our pre-season schedule in the near future so stay tuned here and on our social media.