A new season and new hope: the leading 2025-26 National League promotion contenders revealed

The 2025-26 National League season kicks off on August 9 and promises to be another thrilling campaign as several big clubs – and big-name managers – bid for promotion in another hugely competitive division.

DAZN will be streaming every match and highlights from the National League, including North and South divisions.

Here, DAZN News assesses the leading promotion contenders from the fifth tier in the coming season.

 

Carlisle United

Eyebrows were raised when Mark Hughes pitched up at Brunton Park in February with Carlisle bottom of League Two and facing a mountainous task.

They were five points from safety with 18 games remaining and, despite his best efforts, the legendary former Manchester United and Wales striker could not keep the Cumbrians up.

It was their second successive relegation and sent them back to the fifth tier for the first time since 2005.

Nevertheless, Hughes earned admirers among the fanbase as United lost just once at home under his tenure and won three consecutive games for the first time in more than two years.

That prompted Carlisle to keep Hughes in charge and spearhead their challenge for an immediate return to the EFL.

The Welshman, armed with significant financial backing from the club’s American owners, the Piatak family, is under pressure to achieve that goal.

Buoyed by the acquisition of several new signings – including striker Regan Linney and returning defender Morgan Feeney – Hughes’ men are the bookies’ favourites to win the National League.

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York City

Bitterly disappointing barely begins to describe the end of the Minstermen’s 2024-25 campaign.

They finished runners-up to champions Barnet with 96 points before being thumped 3-0 by Oldham Athletic in the play-off semi-final.

That ensured Adam Hinshelwood’s side will now play their football outside of the EFL for a 10th consecutive season.

Nevertheless, Hinshelwood has impressed hugely in the managerial hot-seat and will bid to take his team all the way this time around.

Ambition pulses loudly around the LNER Community Stadium once again as Hinshelwood looks to fashion another promotion challenge.

Desire is visible and audible in a passionate fanbase, Hinshelwood and a squad strengthened by half a dozen new signings.

Hinshelwood currently holds the best win percentage of any permanent York manager in history and will be out to cap his impressive work with promotion back to the EFL.

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Forest Green Rovers

It has been a summer of change at Forest Green after Steve Cotterill was sacked and Robbie Savage appointed as his successor.

Cotterill was axed after the Gloucestershire outfit finished third before missing out on promotion through the play-offs last season.

Into his place strode Savage, the ex-Leicester, Derby, Blackburn, Birmingham and Wales midfielder who had been managing non-league side Macclesfield FC since 2024.

He quit that job to take up the challenge of steering Forest Green back to the EFL, where they spent seven seasons between 2017 and 2024.

Shortly after Savage was appointed on July 1, he raided his former club for Macclesfield trio Laurent Mendy, Tre Pemberton, and Neil Kengni.

All three featured heavily in Macclesfield’s successful season last term as they won the Northern Premier League to secure promotion.

Savage and sporting director Mark Bowen have also signed Coventry City loanee Isaac Moore, former Wrexham goalkeeper Luke McNicholas, Rochdale striker Kairo Mitchell, Jayden Clarke from Gillingham and Eastbourne Borough’s Yahya Bamba.

It is a squad that looks certain to be competing strongly for promotion.

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Rochdale

Rochdale lost 4-3 at home to Southend United in their National League play-off eliminator last season.

But a new season has brought new hope at the Crown Oil Arena as Jimmy McNulty’s men bid to win promotion.

There has been steady progress under McNulty, who is entering his third season as the club’s permanent manager.

He led Dale to a top half finish in his first full campaign at the helm and was rewarded with a new three-year contract in July 2024.

Last season saw McNulty take them to fourth before losing to Southend in the first stage of the play-offs.

McNulty said the performances and “overachievements” last season show things are moving in the right direction at the club.

He said: “The National League is a very difficult league to get out of with only one going up.

“In any other league with three going up, we would have been one place off automatic promotion in the first year of a new project, months after nearly going bankrupt as a club and nearly disappearing – that’s fantastic.

“It’s definitely the start of something and I’m highly optimistic about this team, this group and our supporters and what they have started.”

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Southend United                                                                           

Southend endured play-off final agony at Wembley Stadium in a 3-2 extra-time defeat to Oldham last term, but they should challenge strongly for promotion once again.

The Shrimpers have kept the bulk of last season’s squad and added the likes of Sam Austin, Ben Goodlife, Harry Boyes and Slavi Spasov.

Spasov starred for Slough Town in the National League South last term, netting 15 goals in that division and 18 times in all competitions during a productive campaign.

The 23-year-old Bulgarian was on Oxford United’s books earlier in his career, so there is a chance he could be a real force for Southend in the National League.            

Having gone so agonisingly close to promotion last time, it is hard not to feel that Kevin Maher's squad will once again be there or thereabouts.

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Scunthorpe United

Andy Butler’s men are buzzing as they prepare for life back in the National League following their promotion success last term.

The Iron beat Chester in the National League Promotion Final at Glanford Park to secure their return to the fifth tier after two seasons away.

A Championship club just 14 years ago, the Iron hit major financial problems and tumbled out of the EFL for the first time in their history in 2022.

Twelve months late they were relegated again and came within a whisker of extinction before being rescued by a consortium led by local businesswoman Michelle Harness.

Now, after winning promotion last term, they are being tipped to challenge for a second successive rise under club legend Butler.

The Iron have retained the bulk of last season’s squad, although goalkeeper Ross Fitzsimmons has joined Northampton and left-back Michael Kelly has moved to rivals Boston.

But Gateshead duo Jean Belehouan and Branden Horton have arrived along with on-loan York duo Billy Chadwick and Rory Watson.

Joey Dawson, who came through the ranks at Glanford Park before joining Celtic, is also back at the club after recovering from a long-term knee injury.

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