Colin Calderwood rues ‘poor 2026’ as Northampton relegation is confirmed

Northampton manager Colin Calderwood admitted his side’s “really poor 2026” has been the reason behind their relegation to League Two, following a 2-1 defeat at Luton.

The Cobblers went into the game on the back of a run of six straight defeats in the league, with nine losses from 10, as they were beaten for the seventh time in a row by the Hatters to drop out of the third tier.

Calderwood said: “The relegation is ultimately a reflection of what’s been a really poor 2026.

“But if there is hope and there is always hope going into a new season, then it was demonstrated by the spirit of the boys. We were in a no-win situation but we certainly showed good personality and the boys showed their love for the club.

“The performance represents a lot of what I think of the group. We made it difficult for Luton. It helped not to concede early and I think the lads demonstrated their talents.

“They showed it against a team who have some excellent players and the excellence of the winning goal means they deserved to win.”

The Cobblers had looked like they might take their unlikely fight into the weekend, as Sam Hoskins opened the scoring when lobbing Josh Keeley on 31 minutes.

Liam Walsh fired home an equaliser from 20 yards just two minutes before the break, while the second period saw Jordan Clark rashly shoot over twice and Ali Al-Hamadi slam against the post.

Skipper Kal Naismith then curled in a superb free kick from 30 yards with five minutes to go, sending Kenilworth Road into raptures as Luton moved up to seventh in the table.

Boss Jack Wilshere added: “It was a special moment, when we needed it.

“We had to find a way tonight, I thought in terms of the game we were the better team, maybe not in the first half, but we had spells where we threatened to be and then we gave the ball away in the final third and we spoke about that at half time, it was just keep the ball in the final third, circulate it.

“I thought Walshy’s goal was a good example of that, we connected inside for an opportunity and then in the second half the players did it, they executed it.

“They didn’t have anything – maybe once they hit the bar from a deflection – but it was all us and it felt like ‘was it going to be one of those nights’.

“It felt like we were going to need something here and Kal delivered that.

“Kal will be the first one to say he could have performed better, why I love him is because of that, his leadership and his resilience, he came up with an really important goal tonight.”