Exeter City were relegated from League One after a 2-1 loss to Bradford City at St James Park.

The victory ensures Bradford's place in the play-offs as they finished in fourth position - they will face Bolton in the semi-finals.

Exeter's poor record since January - winning just one of their final 20 games of the season - has condemned them to a first campaign in League Two since 2022 as they ended the season three points from safety.

Kayden Jackson put the Bantams ahead with a good low finish as the visitors had the better of the first half.

Antoni Sarcevic capitalised on a defensive error late in the second half to seal the win - and Exeter's fate - before Josh Magennis got a stoppage-time consolation for the hosts.

Had Exeter won the game, they would have stayed up as relegation rivals Leyton Orient were held to a 2-2 draw by Burton Albion.

A positive atmosphere at St James Park was punctured early with news of Orient's early opener against Burton.

But the Grecians struggled to create chances against Graham Alexander's side while Sarcevic and Ibou Touray both went close for the visitors in the opening 15 minutes.

Exeter goalkeeper Jack Bycroft made an excellent save from Joe Wright's 25th-minute header from a floated free-kick - but straight from the clearance the visitors struck.

Bradford goalkeeper Sam Walker's long ball back into home territory was won in the air by Sarcevic and George Lapslie was on hand to put in Jackson who finished low past Bycroft.

Exeter brought on experienced midfielder Kevin McDonald and winger Tymur Tutierov at half time - and while the hosts improved, they failed to fashion any clear-cut openings.

Ukrainian loanee Tutierov blazed over after an hour as Bradford failed to deal with a ball into the box.

But 18 minutes later Exeter's fate was confirmed when former Plymouth Argyle player Sarcevic nipped in to slot home after a weak header back to his goalkeeper by Grecians defender Jack McMillan.

Veteran Northern Ireland striker Magennis scored in stoppage time as he finished smartly from Ryan Rydel's cross but Exeter's destiny had already been decided.

Analysis

Brent Pilnick, BBC Sport, Exeter

Exeter's relegation brings to an end one of the most difficult seasons in the club's recent history. It seems anything that could have gone wrong has gone wrong, from fires at the ground to financial pressures and terrible runs of form.

On the field, the rot started on 27 January when they began a 15-game winless run which saw them slip from 10th in the table and six points off the play-off places to three points from safety in the relegation zone when they lost 1-0 at Blackpool on Good Friday.

During that run, long-serving manager Gary Caldwell left to take over at Wigan Athletic with former boss Matt Taylor returning in an interim capacity until the end of the season.

The Grecians then took five points from three games from Easter Monday on 6 April - including dramatic draws with Devon rivals Plymouth Argyle and play-off chasing Stockport County.

But goalkeeper Jack Bycroft's late equaliser against Stockport proved to be the high point of what has been a terrible second half of the season.

Off the field, the club has seen four different people take on the role of chairman in less than a year as overspending last season came back to bite the fan-owned club.

City needed loans totalling £600,000 to stay solvent earlier in the season and had to make redundancies, while the club has been forced to take out a mortgage on the training ground in recent weeks and sell the sell-on rights to Jay Stansfield's move to Birmingham City at a cut price to help balance the books.

It means a reduced playing budget for next season - and the expectation that many of their better players will go.

Jayden Wareham could command a big fee, but the likes of Ilmari Niskanen, Jack McMillan, Reece Cole, Danny Andrew and Josh Magennis are all out of contract.

On top of that, there is no news on who the next manager will be, with Taylor forthright in his view that he would only be in charge until the end of this season when asked last month.