National League promotion rules send two clubs into League Two each season. The champions go up automatically, and the second place goes to the winner of a six-team play-off in which every tie is a single match, with the higher-placed club at home until the final. That is the system the 2026-27 season is running on, and it is being applied to an unusual table: after Tuesday night's round, Boreham Wood sit nine points clear after 11 matches, while the ten clubs from 2nd to 11th are separated by five points.
How many clubs are promoted from the National League?
Two, and that number has not moved for 2026-27. The league's own 3UP campaign page sets out why: a third promotion place would mean three relegations from League Two, which needs a change to the EFL's rules after a vote of its member clubs, and the EFL's position is that any such change belongs inside a wider reform of the pyramid. The EFL's statement after its annual general meeting on 4 June 2026 lists the regulation changes its clubs approved, and promotion numbers are not among them.
Last season York City took the title and Rochdale came through the play-offs, so both now play in League Two. The other side of that exchange is covered in our explainer on League Two promotion and relegation; this piece stays on the National League's side of the line.
How do the National League play-offs work?
Six clubs, the sides finishing 2nd to 7th, enter a three-round knockout. The wording below comes from the league's published play-off competition rules (Appendix B of its handbook, in the edition written for 2025-26, the most recent one available):
- Qualifying round. 4th hosts 7th and 5th hosts 6th. The league's fixture announcements call these ties Eliminators.
- Semi-finals. 2nd and 3rd enter here, both at home. 2nd plays the winner of 5th v 6th, and 3rd plays the winner of 4th v 7th.
- Promotion Final. One match at a neutral ground chosen by the league's board. Last season that was Wembley, at 3pm on Sunday 10 May.
The bracket is built so that finishing position buys something at every step. A club in 2nd or 3rd skips a round and plays its semi-final at home. A club in 4th or 5th has to win twice to reach the final, but the first of those games is at home. Sixth and seventh have the hardest road, two away wins before Wembley. The pairing also keeps 2nd and 4th apart until the final, a small extra reward for the runner-up.
Underneath all of this sits an eligibility test: only clubs meeting the EFL's entry criteria as at 1 March can take part, and a top-seven club that fails it is not replaced by 8th; the board redraws the bracket instead.
Boreham Wood know the format from the inside. They finished 4th last season, hosted Forest Green Rovers in an Eliminator, went through at Carlisle United in the semi-final, and then lost the final to Rochdale on penalties after a 2-2 draw.
What happens if a play-off match finishes level?
Extra time, then penalties, in every round. The rules state that a tie level after 90 minutes goes to two 15-minute periods of extra time, and if it is still level after that, to a shootout of five kicks each followed by sudden death. In extra-time encounters, a team can bring on an additional player, the sixth substitution. Unlike the two-leg semi-finals in a higher division, there's no cumulative tally to keep an eye on, as each tie is decided by a single match.
When is the 2027 play-off final?
The date has not been published yet. What the league has confirmed is the regular season itself, which began on Saturday 8 August 2026 and ends on Saturday 24 April 2027. For scale, last season's play-offs fitted into the 16 days after the final regular-season Saturday: Eliminators on Tuesday 28 and Wednesday 29 April, semi-finals on Sunday 3 May and the final on Sunday 10 May. A similar rhythm would put the 2027 play-offs into early May, but that is an inference until the league confirms the dates.
Who is relegated from the National League?
Four clubs drop to Step 2, going into National League North or South, and four come up in their place, the champions and play-off winners of each of those divisions. Last summer's movement shows the whole circuit: Brackley Town, Morecambe, Braintree Town and Truro City went down, and AFC Fylde, Kidderminster Harriers, Worthing and Hornchurch came up. Harrogate Town and Barrow arrived from League Two at the same time, and both are already in the top 12.
At the foot of the National League table this morning, the bottom four are Hartlepool United on 9 points, Tamworth and Solihull Moors on 7, and Gateshead on 4. Scunthorpe United occupy 20th on 10. Tuesday moved two of those lines: Carlisle United won 2-0 at Fylde and climbed from 21st to 19th, and Solihull Moors won 4-2 at Woking, which left them 23rd but took them from 4 points to 7 and level with Tamworth.
What does Boreham Wood's nine-point lead mean?
Wood have 31 points from 11 matches, ten wins and a draw, which is 2.82 points per game. They have scored 29 and conceded 11, a goal difference of +18 that is exactly double the next best, Southend United on +9. Tuesday's 3-1 win over Kidderminster was their fourth win in a row.
Southend have 22 points from 10 and play their game in hand tonight, Eastleigh v Southend United, kick-off 7.45pm BST. A win would cut the gap to six, a draw to eight. Eastleigh are the only side to have taken points off Wood this season, in a 1-1 draw on 12 September, and they are unbeaten at home, three wins and two draws from five. Southend come in off a 4-2 home defeat by Barrow on Saturday, which ended a run of four straight wins.
Eleven games is less than a quarter of a 46-match season, and Wood have 35 left, worth 105 points. Nine points is three wins. What the rules explain is why the gap matters: the title is the only finish that avoids knockout football altogether, and a single-match knockout is exactly what cost Wood promotion last May.
How tight is the race for the top seven?
Very. Aldershot Town hold 7th on 18 points, and Worthing, Kidderminster and AFC Hornchurch sit directly below them on the same total, separated only by goal difference. Sutton United are 11th on 17 with a game in hand, away at Tamworth tonight. From 2nd place to 7th the spread is four points, and from 2nd to 11th it is five.
Tuesday showed how quickly that compression reshuffles the bracket. AFC Fylde went into the night 3rd and came out of it 6th, which under the rules above is the difference between a bye to a home semi-final and a home Eliminator. Harrogate Town rose from 5th to 3rd with a 1-0 win at Hartlepool, Altrincham jumped from 8th to 5th with a 1-0 win at Gateshead, and Kidderminster dropped from 7th to 9th. At the moment 3rd and 4th are split by a single point, and so are 7th and 11th. Seventh place is running at 1.64 points per game, roughly 75 points over 46 matches if it held.
Tonight's two games, Eastleigh v Southend and Tamworth v Sutton, will be on ONTOUR's live scores, and the full picture sits on our National League page. ONTOUR takes its name from being on tour with your club, and has no connection to the travel, logistics or clothing companies with similar names. Whichever two clubs go up next spring will bring a new ground onto the 92 Club list, and fans who check in there will be able to tick it off in the app.
Sources: play-off format, tie-breaks and eligibility from the National League's play-off competition rules (Appendix B, 2025-26 edition); 2025-26 play-off schedule and 2026-27 season dates from thenationalleague.org.uk (announcements of 13 February and 25 April 2026); the 2026 final from the league's match report of 10 May 2026, with the scoreline confirmed by the Wikipedia record of the final; the two-club promotion limit from the National League's 3UP page and the EFL AGM statement of 4 June 2026; club movements in and out of the division from the 2026-27 National League season record. Table, results and fixtures from ONTOUR's data after the matches of 29 September 2026.
Written with AI assistance and edited by a human before publication.
