WSL play-off: Charlton hoping to take Leicester's spot in the top flight | OneFootball

The 2026/27 Women's Super League season will see the top flight extended to 14 teams next season with 13 of those confirmed and either Leicester City or Charlton Athletic 

Saturday will be a special deciding promotion/relegation as the second-tier Addicks host a Leicester team fighting for their top-flight status.

Charlton will be wondering how they even go to this stage as they were looking good for automatic promotion until a late-season collapse. After going unbeaten until March, Charlton then went on to lose four of their last six games which saw them finish two points behind Crystal Palace and WSL 2 winners Birmingham City after suffering a 2-0 final day defeat to the Blues.

The bad news for Charlton is that defender Charlotte Newsham will be missing from this game but will be in front of what is expected to be a record crowd at The Valley.

Leicester meanwhile will be missing Alisha Lehmann due to injury, who could have provided an extra creative dimension. Still, the Foxes will feel like they should have enough quality in their squad relative to a second tier side especially with Ashleigh Neville and Janina Leitzig both back in contention.

However, Rick Passmoor needs to inject some confidence into his team who have lost every single one of the 12 games they've played in 2026. In fact, Leicester have only beaten three teams all season: Liverpool, London City Lionesses (x2), and second-tier Ipswich Town.

This should prove to be a fascinating encounter but one that fans will soon get used to with promotion/relegation play-offs between the 13th place WSL side and the 2nd place WSL 2 team the norm going forward.