> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://pitch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # The table at the halfway mark: who is really in the race? - URL: https://pitch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/the-table-at-the-halfway-mark-who-is-really-in-the-race/ - Published: 2026-09-23T17:30:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-23T17:30:00.000Z - Description: Two clubs, a queue behind them and a relegation fight that is already three teams deep. - Author: Sofia Marín - Tags: Analysis, #Import 2026-10-02 15:58 Nine games gone, nine to go. At the halfway mark, the Northern League table looks like a race between two clubs and a queue behind them. But tables at Christmas are famous liars. Here is what this one is really telling us, and what it is hiding. ![Nine games in, most managers have already torn up their first plan.](https://pitch.ghostcms.templates.codememory.com/content/images/2026/10/table-board-1.jpg) Nine games in, most managers have already torn up their first plan. ## The table | Pos | Team | P | W | D | L | GD | Pts | Form | | --- | -------------------- | - | - | - | - | ---- | --- | ----- | | 1 | Riverside Rovers | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | +12 | 22 | WDWWW | | 2 | Ashford United | 9 | 6 | 2 | 1 | +9 | 20 | WWDWL | | 3 | Elmwood | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | +7 | 17 | LWWDW | | 4 | Northgate Albion | 9 | 4 | 3 | 2 | +4 | 15 | WDLWD | | 5 | Kingsbridge Athletic | 9 | 4 | 2 | 3 | +2 | 14 | DWLWD | | 6 | Harbour City | 9 | 3 | 4 | 2 | +1 | 13 | DDWLD | | 7 | Millbrook Town | 9 | 2 | 4 | 3 | \-2 | 10 | LDWLD | | 8 | Stoneley Rangers | 9 | 1 | 3 | 5 | \-8 | 6 | DLLWD | | 9 | Castleford Wanderers | 9 | 1 | 1 | 7 | \-11 | 4 | LLWLL | | 10 | Fenwick Town | 9 | 1 | 0 | 8 | \-14 | 3 | LLLWL | The top two go up. The bottom three go down. Everything in between is pride and prize money. ## The title race: closer than it looks Rovers are top because they win the games they should win. They have beaten every side below fifth, and they have done it with a centre-forward, Femi Okoye, who has eleven goals in nine games. Nobody has scored that many at this stage for fourteen years. But look more closely and there are cracks. Rovers have conceded first in four of their nine games. They have come from behind to win three of those, twice in the last ten minutes. That is either the sign of a team with great character or a team that is living dangerously. Probably both. Ashford, two points behind, have the best defensive record in the division and the best away form. They lost at Riverside Park on Saturday to a goal in the ninety-third minute, with ten men. Their manager, Gareth Pym, said afterwards that he would rather play Rovers away than at home. He meant it as a compliment to his own team. > Title races aren't won in September. They're lost in February, in the rain, at places like Fenwick. > > **Gareth Pym, Ashford United manager** ## Elmwood: the dark horses If there is a third side in the race, it is Elmwood. They have scored more goals after the seventieth minute than anyone, and their manager, Tomasz Wiśniewski, has a bench that would start for most teams in the league. Five points is a lot to make up. But Elmwood have the easiest run of fixtures in the second half of the season: five home games against the bottom five. ## The middle: nothing to play for? Northgate, Kingsbridge and Harbour City are separated by two points. None of them is likely to reach the top two. None of them is likely to go down. That makes their games against the teams above and below them the most important in the league, because every point they take from a title contender or a relegation rival changes somebody else's season. Millbrook, in seventh, are the most interesting of the group. They have drawn four games and lost three, but their expected goals figure (see our explainer) suggests they have been unlucky. If their striker Rhys Dunmore keeps scoring the way he did against Northgate, they will finish higher than seventh. ## The bottom three It is hard to see past Fenwick Town, who have one win and have lost their last three by a combined score of eleven to one. Their manager left in September. Their new one, the former Rovers captain Mark Stead, has been in charge for three weeks and says he needs "five players and a miracle". He will probably get neither. Castleford and Stoneley are the real fight. Castleford led at home to Elmwood for seventy minutes last week and then lost 4-1\. Stoneley have drawn three of their last four. Two points separate them, and they meet twice in the second half of the season. 📅 **Games to circle:** Ashford v Rovers (15 February), Castleford v Stoneley (1 March), Elmwood v Ashford (22 March), Stoneley v Castleford (19 April). ## Our predictions | | Pick | Why | | ---------------- | ----------------------------- | ------------------------------------ | | Champions | Ashford United | The best defence usually wins | | Also promoted | Riverside Rovers | Okoye's goals, if he stays fit | | Surprise package | Millbrook Town | Unlucky so far, and it will even out | | Relegated | Fenwick, Castleford, Stoneley | The gap is already too big | We have been wrong before. We made these predictions in August too, and we had Rovers finishing fifth. ## Home and away One more thing the table hides is where the points were won. Rovers have taken nineteen of their twenty-two points at Riverside Park. Away from home they have won once. Ashford are almost the opposite: they have the best away record in the league and have dropped points at home to both Harbour City and Northgate. That matters because of the fixture list. Rovers have five away games in the second half of the season against sides in the top six. Ashford have four home games against the same group. If both teams keep their current home and away form, the table in May could look very different from the one above. ## The goal difference question Goal difference has decided the title in this league twice in the last ten years. Rovers lead Ashford by three goals. Elmwood, who score heavily against weaker sides, could close that gap in a single afternoon against Fenwick. It is a small thing to watch, and in April it may be the only thing anyone talks about.