New and familiar faces - Looking ahead to our 2025/26 away days

With Warrington Town’s opponents for the 2025/26 season now confirmed, the countdown to the fixture list reveal, expected sometime in July, will begin.

In terms of travel, this season’s Northern Premier League will see the Yellows cover 3,073 miles going there and back to their 21 opponents.

That’s much less than the 4,431 miles travelled in last season’s National League North, though that included two extra journeys.

Many of the opponents are familiar - with only two clubs that the Yellows have never previously played in competitive fixtures. Those are the respective NPL East and West Division champions, Cleethorpes Town and Widnes.

The Yellows have only played Stockton Town once before, a 5-2 win in the FA Trophy back in 1992 on the way to reaching the quarter-finals.

There will be a first league meeting with Hebburn Town, who the Yellows faced in consecutive seasons in the FA Trophy in 2021 and 2022, winning on both occasions.

One of the most memorable games in Warrington Town history was the last game against Bamber Bridge, which of course was the 2022/23 Northern Premier League play-off final.

A total of 10 clubs are still in the NPL Premier from that season. That includes Lancaster City, who the Yellows have faced more than any other team in the division, having met 50 times (W20 D12 L18) since first locking horns in 1983.

There could also be a first return to Cantilever Park for former manager Mark Beesley, now in charge at FC United.

Of the other clubs, there will be a first meeting in 17 years with Stocksbridge Park Steels, who the club previously did battle with in NPL Division 1, including the single season stint in NPL Division 1 South.

We are paired with Ilkeston Town in the league for the third separate time, and on each of the previous two occasions it has been a single season battle. Both sides were in NPL D1 in 2004/05, and then in NPL Premier in 2016/17, while the Yellows also beat Ilkeston on the way to winning the Northern Premier League Cup in 2015.

Paul Carden has been in charge of every meeting between Warrington Town and Hednesford Town to date, - a total of six games covering the seasons 2016/17, 2017/18 and 2018/19.

There will be a first league meeting with Prescot Cables since the game where the Yellows lifted the NPL Division 1 North league title in record-breaking fashion in 2016 with a 6-1 win. The clubs have met since then, Prescot winning 1-0 in the FA Trophy in 2018.

There is one club who the Yellows played in National League North - Rushall Olympic have been placed in the NPL following Farsley Celtic’s failure to get a Step 1-4 licence, and they will now drop two further leagues to Step 5.

The longest trip is the familiar 175 mile jaunt to Morpeth Town, with the shortest being the 2.5 miles to the derby game against Rylands.

The season is due to get underway on Saturday 9 August.