The WSL title race between Manchester City and Chelsea isn’t the only women’s football competition that will go down to the wire.
With just three points separating the top three teams, the race to win this season’s Women’s Championship and secure a coveted promotion to the WSL couldn’t be closer.
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Crystal Palace are currently leaders with 42 points – but Sunderland are just behind them on 40 points – and only one team is moving up.
Third-placed Charlton Athletic have 39 points and still have a chance of promotion.
And with Crystal Palace vs Sunderland taking place on the final day of the season, it’s time for the order to change significantly before promotion is decided.
But which team is most likely to join the crème de la crème of the WSL next season? talkSPORT.com takes a look.
Crystal Palace
The narrow favorites to achieve promotion this season, Palace’s most impressive statistic this season comes in the 53 goals they have scored.
Southampton are their next closest rival in this department, having scored 36 goals – proof of the strength of the Saints attack this season.
Palace midfielder Hayley Nolan is among the players to have spoken of their big ambitions, despite the tight margins.
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Speaking to LiveScore in February, she said: “That’s the beauty of this league. I think people who don’t watch the league don’t understand how good the standard is.
“You have five teams fighting for the title and a number of teams outside of that group who can take points from anyone on their day.
“We can only focus on what we do because that’s all we can control.”
Palace’s final two games see them face struggling Lewes before the all-important clash against Sunderland.
Sunderland
As the only team fighting for promotion this season to have previously competed in the WSL, Sunderland could see themselves as having an advantage.
Not to mention they have a well-established history of producing some pretty exceptional players – Lionesses Jill Scott, Lucy Bronze, Beth Mead and Jordan Nobbs being just a few.
Sunderland captain Brianna Westrup told Sky Sports she reflected on how far the club had exceeded expectations.
She said: “At the start of the season a lot of people expected us to be in a relegation battle rather than a promotion battle.
“A lot of teams have strengthened and retained a lot of personnel and we’ve had quite a bit of turnover, so we’ve probably achieved beyond what people would have expected.
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“But once we found our rhythm this season, we thought ‘we can expect that from this group’. It’s not an isolated game that we win. As we “We grew up in this area, it gave us more confidence in the team.”
Sunderland are behind Crystal Palace only because they drew one more time – but having the two meet on the final day will make that relatively unimportant.
Their final two matches will ultimately determine whether or not they return to the WSL for the first time since 2018.
Charlton Athletic
Sitting in third place, Charlton are the outside contenders for promotion – but not by much.
They’ve actually lost fewer games than the two teams above – but having drawn a large number of their matches means their points total remains lower.
The Addicks are just three points behind leaders Crystal Palace, and with the top two facing each other on the final day, they will be looking to capitalize on the smallest of mistakes.
Manager Karen Hills told talkSPORT what her message to her players was this season.
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She said: “Focus on the next game, focus on what we can control. I’m here, it’s the third season. When I took over it was part-time. I had a three-year plan to keep us in the Championship to begin with, then we went full-time and managed to build a team of full-time players and staff.”
And Hills added that the support of the club as a whole has been instrumental in maintaining the momentum this season.
She said: “My job is to make the team successful on the pitch. The club supports me, the club wants the women’s team to be back in the top flight of women’s football. And they totally support me in what I’m trying to achieve. And obviously, with my recruiting this year, it proved that.
She added: “If I’m honest, it’s probably the most competitive league I’ve seen.”
At one point favorites to rise, some unexpected defeats to Reading and London City Lionesses significantly damaged Charlton’s chances.
With an unenviable title race that will see them face Sunderland and Southampton in their final two games, Charlton know that any dropped points will mean their WSL ambitions will have to wait until next season.
Can the promoted team survive in the WSL?
Bristol City’s season in the WSL hasn’t been the best advertisement for promoted teams.
The Robins have picked up just six points this season, having lost 14 of their games so far.
Despite an admirable determination that saw them challenge teams more than the final scoreline often suggests, Lauren Smith’s side look certain to be relegated just one season after promotion.
As the only team in the WSL without a Premier League counterpart, they were always going to have to overcome issues relating to a lack of financial resources and relatively limited resources.
Charlton manager Hills admitted promotion to the WSL presented teams with a whole new set of challenges.
She said: “You go up there, it’s a completely different ball game. You see the kind of caliber players that are playing in this top league. The gap is getting closer…however, the caliber players – to be able to compete like that week in, week out, it’s difficult and you have to bring in world class players.”
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But there are certainly positive signs for whichever team wins promotion this season.
Crystal Palace, for example, would not expect to face the financial disparity that Bristol City have struggled with this season, or that Reading suffered with last season, given their men’s team are in the Premier League.
With the right investment, there’s no reason why they can’t try their luck in the WSL.
And there are growing signs that the levels of playing football in the WSL and Women’s Championship are no longer as far apart as they once might have been.
Southampton boss Marieanne Spacey told talkSPORT that this was something that had been clearly demonstrated by Cup matches which saw WSL sides seriously challenged by Championship sides.
It took Chelsea 81 minutes to score a goal past Crystal Palace as they vied for a place in the FA Cup quarter-finals – and that was all they could manage.
Tottenham also needed 76 minutes to score their winning goal past Charlton in the FA Cup fifth round.
And Man United had to work very hard this season to defeat Southampton 3-1 in the same round.
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The Saints had equalized after an early goal from Ella Toone and it took United a key substitution in the form of Rachel Williams to really put the game to bed in the final 20 minutes.
Saints manager Spacey said it was a testament to the quality and determination they brought to this and other matches against WSL teams.
She said: “Before that we played against Arsenal in the Conti Cup and we had a fantastic crowd – over 13,000 people at that game. And it was 2-1! It was a great game to watch for the fans and for the players.
“And the beautiful thing about the team is that when they went to the game against Man United, they were saying, ‘Come on, we played Arsenal, we can play them! We have every chance in this match.’ .’
“Arsenal and Man United made changes in those games and brought players into the game, which we took as a real compliment.”
She added: “I think that’s what we demonstrated in these two games – what we’re really capable of. What we need to do now is deliver those capabilities consistently.”
Although Bristol City have failed in some of their WSL matches, they have certainly challenged in many of them and all indications are that whichever team gets promoted will also be able to do the same.
Much will still depend on how teams like West Ham, Everton or Leicester City, still without a manager, perform in the WSL next season.
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But with some shrewd summer signings, an engaged fan base and sustained investment from the club, next season could well represent the best chance for a promoted club to succeed in the WSL.
You can follow talkSPORT’s women’s football show on Mondays from 7 p.m. on talkSPORT 2.
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