Northampton Town 2-0 Carlisle United: Cumbrians relegated to League Two

Carlisle United have been relegated from League One after one season in the third tier.

The Cumbrians' relegation was confirmed by defeat by Northampton Town on Saturday.

Paul Simpson's men beat Stockport County in a penalty shootout at Wembley to win promotion through the League Two play-offs last May.

However, in their first season at this level since 2013-14, they have won just six of 42 games.

They dropped into the relegation zone on 28 October and have remained in the bottom four ever since.

A 2-1 win over Port Vale on 1 January moved them to within three points of safety but they lost the following eight games to be cut adrift.

From Wembley jubilation to season of struggle

Boss Simpson masterminded an unlikely promotion last season after being brought back to his hometown club for a second in 2021-22 to save them from relegation into the National League.

They had three wins from their first 16 matches when a takeover by American consortium Castle Sports Group, led by the Piatek family, in late November.

Despite going on to recruit a number of players in January they never looked like getting out of trouble and their wretched eight-match losing streak left relegation looking like a formality by the start of March.

Simpson had already turned his attentions to the summer window last month, telling BBC Radio Cumbria they needed to "make sure we recruit physical, better technical footballers than what we are at the moment. That's the brutal truth of it that we've got to look at addressing."

League Two return confirmed

Goals from Northampton's Kieron Bowie and Ali Koiki confirmed Carlisle's relegation.

Carlisle had a strong wind behind them in the first half at Sixfields and they used that to dominate territorially but the conditions did not help either side find their flow in a scrappy contest.

A rare chance saw Lee Burge tip over Georgie Kelly's header before Northampton scored with their first real chance of the first half.

It came on 33 minutes when Sam Sherring's header from a Mitch Pinnock corner was blocked and fell to Bowie who stabbed into the net.

Carlisle tried to force the issue in their pursuit of an equaliser after the break but they struggled against the wind and barely created a chance of note.

And their fate was sealed in stoppage time when Koiki ran the length of the pitch from a defensive corner and rolled the ball home after rounding goalkeeper Harry Lewis.

Match report details supplied by PA Media.