Exciting times as National League just weeks away for Newbridge Town

August 2026 will mark an exciting milestone Kildare, as senior League of Ireland football returns to the county for the first time in almost two decades. Newbridge Town were one of the 15 teams awarded a senior license by the FAI earlier this year and now the brand-new National League is just weeks away.

The exciting new league comes with a temporary format for the inaugural 2026 season, with the FAI using the first season as an opportunity for the 15 teams to find their feet in this new third tier of Irish football.

The format for 2026 sees the 15 teams divided into three groups of five, with the three group winners as well as the best runner-up moving on to the semi-finals. There will be no promotion on offer to the LOI First Division in the first season, with that coming into effect in 2027.

Newbridge Town are in Group 3 where they will play home and away fixtures against CK United, Killarney Celtic, UCC and Villa. Speaking with The Kildare Nationalist, Newbridge manager, Martin Russell explained the mountain of work being done at the club in preparation for the new league.

“The club is working hard on and off the field. It's a new venture for the club, so there's a lot of work to get through, both from the player recruitment end of things, as well as training, etc,” Russell said.

“And then, obviously, on the off-the-field stuff, the club is trying to market itself to get sponsorship deals; we’re also renovating grounds, the dressing rooms have been upgraded stuff like that - there's a lot still going on.

“There's been a lot of work being put into the pitch to get that as good a standard as possible - that's the main focus at the moment. It's part of an ongoing process to try and improve everything in the club.” 

Newbridge Town are in the process of assembling their squad for the upcoming season, with Russell saying the club are “going through the process of having friendly games and trial games.” 

Russell confirmed that as well as a team in the National League, Newbridge will also retain their Leinster Senior League status, meaning the club will need to field three senior squads moving forward. Regarding the make-up of the National League squad, the manager said:

“We have some of the lads that've been playing in our senior team who are good young players, you know; the natural progress for them would to be hopefully get into the Tier 3 squad and that then continues their development and their pathway.

“Regarding new players, we'll have signings in the next week or so, once we see a little bit more of them. It's still a work in progress.

“We'll need a pool of players, a squad of 24, probably, for the Tier 3. And the Leinster Senior sides would need similar numbers for the Saturday and Sunday teams.” 

Russell described Newbridge’s place in the new league as “a positive venture for the club,” saying “it's much needed for the region of Kildare in general to have a National League presence. And this Tier 3 gives the potential for Newbridge and Kildare to move on and hopefully there's a pathway into the First Division and again another level of something to aim for.

“For me, wherever I've managed, you get the best you can in the area and you supplement them with the best you can get from outside. I think for me, it's very important that you have a nucleus or you have a core from the local region.

“But equally, I think most people that will come to the games will want to see the team being competitive. So you're not just going to play players for the sake of it - they're going to have to be good enough. And the good thing about it now for the region is that if a kid is good enough, he can have aspirations to play for Newbridge at a National League level, which wasn't there before.”