It hasn’t been in doubt for some time now, but Carlisle’s relegation back to League Two was confirmed with their 2-0 defeat at Northampton.
After their Wembley play-off win against Stockport County, United have won just six games and have been in the bottom four since late October.
A 2-1 home win over Port Vale on New Year’s Day which took them to within three points of safety raised hopes of an escape but they then lost the next eight games and there has been no way back.
The take over by American company Castle Sports Group, headed by the Piatek family helped manager Paul Simpson sign a number of players in January but it hardly helped and the drop has looked a formality now for over a moth.
Northampton were one of the teams who went up with them last season and goals from Kieron Bowie and Ali Koiki gave the Cobblers confirmed a solid mid-table berth.
It was generally a scrappy contest, spoiled by a strong wind which Carlisle had behind them in the first half.
The nearest they came to scoring, though, was from a Georgie Kelly header which was tipped over by home keeper Lee Burge.
But it was Northampton who scored on 33 minutes with their first real chance of the first half. Sam Sherring got on the end of a Mitch Pinnock corner and although his header was blocked Bowie was on hand to stab home.
Although they showed plenty of effort against the wind in the second-half Carlisle rarely looked like grabbing an equaliser and the only further goal came in stoppage time when Koiki ran clear after the hosts had defended a corner. He went on to go round keeper Harry Lewis and score into an empty net.
