There is an extra promotion opportunity for Peterborough United Women in the 2025-26 season

The expansion of the Women’s Super League means a one-off change to the promotion system in The FA Womens National League, which covers tiers 3 and 4 of the pyramid.

Two additional teams will also be promoted from tier 4 to tier 3, alongside the four division winners. These will also be determined by play-offs, with the second-placed sides in Division One North and Division One Midlands facing each other for one place, and the two second-placed sides in Division One South West and Division One South East competing for the other spot.

Posh compete at Midlands Division One level and finished third last season. Only champions Loughborough Lightning were promoted.

All three play-off finals will take place in May, but relegation places remains unaffected, with the two bottom placed sides from each division dropping down.

The new regular season for Posh will start on Sunday, August 17 and finish on Sunday, April 26. The fixtures will be released on Tuesday, July 15.

Posh Women are already back in pre-season training ahead of the summer friendly programme, which starts on Sunday at Gainsborough.

Posh have signed striker Jess Rousseau from Leeds United. ​Leeds play at the same National League level as Posh. Rousseau scored 30 goals in two seasons for the Yorkshire club.

Full-back Hayley James and long-serving Jessica Stanford are the latest Posh players to re-sign for the 2025-26 season. James made 18 appearances in all competitions for Posh last term after moving from Nottingham Forest, scoring three times and creating six goals in her 13 appearances in Midlands Division One.

Stanford is third in the club's all-time appearance list for the Posh Women with 142 in all competitions. She has scored 85 goals.

She returned at the back end of the 2024/25 campaign following an ACL injury, making one appearance in the final month of the campaign.

Posh manager Jake Poole said: "Jessica feels like an exciting new signing as she returns from a long-term injury. We saw glimpses of what Jessica is capable of towards the end of last season in training and can't wait to see her back to her best.

"And to bring a player of Hayley's calibre to the football club was a huge step in a forward direction and the fact she has decided to stay for another year shows the steps we are looking to take."