Former Crawley Town manager lands Carlisle United job
Former Crawley Town boss Rob Elliot has joined National League side Carlisle United as their new head coach.
Elliot joins the Cumbrian side, located just 12 miles south of the Scottish border, succeeding the experienced and former Manchester City, Stoke City and Southampton manager Mark Hughes.
A club statement said Hughes had “left his position as Head Coach by mutual agreement” with Hughes' task of returning Carlisle to League Two at the first time of asking unsuccessful after they lost 2-1 to Boreham Wood in the play-off semi-final following a third place finish in the National League.
Elliot takes the reins at Carlisle after departing Gateshead following his second stint at the club in which he achieved one of the greatest escapes from relegation.
When the former Charlton Athletic and Newcastle United goalkeeper re-joined the Tynesiders, they were bottom of the National League table with 19 points from 24 games.
In mid February they fell to their 16th successive defeat in all competitions and were 11 points adrift and the picture was looking very bleak.
However Elliot completed a remarkable turnaround as they climbed to 18th in the table finishing eight points clear of the relegation zone on 50 points, securing safety with two games to spare.
Following discussions with Gateshead’s board ‘terms could not be agreed between the club and Rob Elliot regarding budgets and access to certain immediate infrastructure’ – and so Carlisle snatched the former ex-Crawley boss.
Elliot was at the helm of Crawley for much of their League One campaign during the 2024-25 season in what was a largely disappointing six-month term, which saw the Reds languish at the bottom end of the third tier, which ultimately led to their drop back down to League Two despite Scott Lindsey’s best efforts in the remaining nine games following his return.
Elliot, 40, managed 33 matches during his time at the Broadfield Stadium and had a win percentage of 18%, averaging 0.79 points per game.
In the 29 league games he took charge of he won just five of them, drew eight and lost 16, with a 5-1 defeat away at Huddersfield Town bringing an end to his time at Crawley.
Elliot is certainly a promising young manager having proven himself at National League level – and maybe a jump to the third tier of English Football was too soon for him.
Now Reds fans will watch with interest to see how he fares at Brunton Park in the next chapter of his managerial career as he aims to take the Cumbrians back to the EFL.