Burnham lead the way but this season’s Combined Counties League should go to the wire

The Combined Counties League Premier Division North in its current incarnation doesn’t tend to have a runaway leader and 2025/26 looking no different.

Typically a competitive division, the last runaway champions were Ascot United during their FA Vase winning 2022/23 season when they stormed to the title, amassing 102 points – 18 points clear of second placed Egham Town.

The current season looks competitive with nine points separating the top five of Burnham, Ashford Town, Wallingford & Crowmarsh, Broadfields United and Ardley United, while any side down to Wokingham Town in thirteenth could reasonably believe that they’d be a good winning run away from a shot at the play-offs.

Part of that competitiveness of course comes down to the dreaded ‘games in hand’ which is part and parcel of non-league football. Whether it’s a good Cup run slowing down League progress, the weather or just quirks of the fixture computer, there are plenty of reasons why teams have completed very different numbers of games.

As it stands, Wallingford have played the most games of any side in the top five with 27 completed while leaders Burnham have played 26. For context, the CCL North this season is a 38 game marathon.

The Blues were top from match week two through to 13 and regained pole position in match week 23 according to the always excellent tracking tools available through FootballWebPages. The game at home to Ashford on the 24th February is certainly one to keep an eye on.

Two sides well placed to gate-crash the play-offs are Berkshire Fourth Round FA Vase campaigners, Reading City and Windsor & Eton. Both have played 19 games and, comparably with Burnham, have 21 points to play for in their games in hand. Winning all of them would put the Berkshire sides in first and second with Windsor arguably a ‘runaway leader’ if we refer back to the beginning.

Points Per Game (PPG) also points to Windsor as having a good chance of, if not the title, then a play-off spot as boss Rob Webb told us recently: “We’ve put ourselves in a really strong position for a top five finish. We’ll have a lot of games to play, and that is something to manage later on when we have tired legs and whatnot, but you know we have a fantastic squad, and they’re very, very dedicated to their fitness outside of football, which is something that, unlike previous squads I’ve had, they have been dedicated but not this dedicated.

“This is another level of dedication, which I’m really proud of from them. The fixture congestion is going to come into play for sure, but that’s part and parcel of being successful. We’re still in the Vase and the League Cup.

“If you want to be successful, you’ve got to play the games. That’s part of it at this level as well, because every club will have that.”

That’s all of course on paper, and as the old saying goes, the game isn’t played on paper. Fatigue, the possibility of three games a week in challenging conditions, squad management and injuries could and will play a part.

Burnham’s artificial surface will certainly offer the club a more reliable end to the season in terms of games being on. However the table looks now, you can bet there are going to be plenty of changes between now and the end of another competitive season.

Who do you think will win the Combined Counties League Premier Division North title? Let us know in the comment section below.