Two automatic promotions, one play-off, and a final-day collapse from a team that had spent most of the season top: that is how the 2025-26 Women’s Super League 2 finished on Saturday.
Birmingham City and Crystal Palace are going up to the Women’s Super League. Charlton Athletic, top of the table for chunks of the season, finish third and now have to win a single play-off match against Leicester City to join them.
The two results that decided it
Charlton arrived at The Valley for their final game against Birmingham knowing that a draw was probably enough — they had finished a 16-game unbeaten run earlier in the spring, and Birmingham needed three points and other results going their way. Birmingham got everything they needed. Wilma Leidhammar, the January signing who finished the season with seven goals from her arrival on, scored twice. Final: Birmingham 2-0 Charlton. Title sealed.
Half an hour south, in Sutton, Crystal Palace were doing their part. Ashleigh Weerden scored twice, Kirsty Howat, Annabel Blanchard, and Elise Hughes completed a 6-1 win over Portsmouth — the team going down. Palace had been third before kick-off. They finished second.
Final standings
Top of the WSL 2 after 22 matches:
- Birmingham City — 44 points (champions, promoted)
- Crystal Palace — 44 points (promoted on goal difference)
- Charlton Athletic — 42 points (play-off vs Leicester City)
- Bristol City — 37 points
- Southampton — 35 points
Top scorers: Amy Andrews of Sheffield United and Rio Hardy of Bristol City, joint on nine goals. The league averaged just under three goals per game across 126 matches.
Why two go up automatically this year
This is the first WSL 2 season operating under the expanded format. The Women’s Super League grows from 12 to 14 teams in 2026-27, which means two automatic promotions from the second tier, plus a single play-off match between the third-placed WSL 2 side and the bottom WSL team. Portsmouth go down from WSL 2 as the only relegation; the rest stays as it is.
Practical effect: more clubs in England’s top flight, more matches, more squad investment required, and a lot more attention on results in the bottom half of WSL 1 — for the next decade, dropping to 12th will mean a knife-edge fixture against a hungry Championship side every May.
Birmingham’s comeback
Birmingham last played in the WSL in 2021-22. They were relegated at the end of that season after one of the longest top-flight runs in English women’s football, and the four years since have been a slow rebuild — manager change, squad turnover, eventually back into contention this year. Leidhammar’s January arrival was the lever that flipped the season. Seven goals from a striker arriving mid-campaign is a serious return.
Crystal Palace are bouncing back faster: they were promoted to WSL in 2023-24 and relegated last season after one campaign in the top flight. Coming straight back up is a club-finance argument as much as a footballing one — Palace’s women’s programme has been steadily integrated with the men’s side under Steve Parish, and the budget reflected promotion ambitions all season.
The Charlton play-off
Charlton vs Leicester City, single match, 23 May, venue to be confirmed. Charlton finished third with 42 points, a 16-game unbeaten run earlier in the year, and the league’s best defensive record. Leicester finished bottom of the WSL — though “bottom” in the era of WSL 1 still means a fully professional squad with a Champions League-level training base.
For Charlton manager Karen Hills, this is a second shot at a promotion she has chased before. For Leicester, it is survival in the top flight after a season they would rather forget. The match will, for the first time in WSL history, decide a relegation/promotion in 90 minutes (or extra time and penalties if needed).
What it means
The 2026-27 Women’s Super League will be 14 clubs strong — Birmingham and Palace already confirmed, plus the winner of Charlton vs Leicester. The sight of Birmingham at St Andrew’s and Palace at Selhurst hosting Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City next season is what the expansion was always trying to manufacture. On Saturday, two of the three pieces fell into place. The third decides itself on 23 May.
Sources: VAVEL — WSL2 Final Day Report, Wikipedia — 2025-26 WSL 2, Official WSL 2 standings, FourFourTwo — WSL expansion explained.