Leyton Orient 0-1 Fleetwood Town: Cod Army relegated from League One

Charlie Adam came into Fleetwood in January but was unable to turn the club's fortunes around

Fleetwood Town have been relegated from League One despite beating Leyton Orient, after fellow strugglers Burton Albion beat Reading.

Xavier Simons scored the only goal of the game three minutes into added time to secure victory for the visitors.

But Burton's win at home to Reading sealed Fleetwood's fate.

In a match of endeavour but lacking quality, Town almost took the lead early in the second half when a bullet header by Carl Johnston was punched clear by goalkeeper Sol Brynn from point-blank range.

The Orient keeper was soon extended again to keep out a Ryan Broom effort.

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But Jay Lynch was the busier of the two keepers in the first half. He was fully extended when he tipped a 22-yard free-kick by Tom James over the bar and then pushing away a powerful drive by Ethan Galbraith.

Brendan Sarpong-Wiredu went on an enterprising run before his effort was collected by Brynn as Fleetwood pushed for a second-half winner.

It arrived when Simons collected a pass from Tommy Lonergan after Orient failed to clear their lines and neatly struck the ball past Brynn.

But it was not enough to take Fleetwood's fight to the last weekend of the season.

Fleetwood's first relegation

The Cod Army have spent almost the entire season in the relegation zone, having dropped into the bottom four on 19 August.

Boss Scott Brown was sacked in September and replaced by Lee Johnson, but he was relieved of his duties in December after a nine-game winless run.

Former Liverpool, Blackpool and Scotland midfielder Charlie Adam came in in January but was unable to change their fortunes.

He at least succeeded in making the team harder to beat but they struggled to win, drawing five games across a six-game unbeaten run in February and March.

Victory over Northampton on Saturday kept their survival hopes alive but a 4-1 defeat to Peterborough on Tuesday meant their fate was out of their control.

This is the club's first relegation since changing name from Fleetwood Wanderers to Fleetwood Town in 2002.

From there they won six promotions in 12 years, as they rose from North West Counties League Division One to the third tier.

Relegation comes at the end of a turbulent 12 months for the club after Andy Pilley, who served as the club's owner and chairman from 2004, was jailed for 13 years in July for a multi-million pound fraud.

Match details supplied by PA Media.