Carlisle United
After the Manchester United deal, Knighton went on to buy Carlisle United, based in the Cumbrian City of Carlisle in 1992. At the time, they were in the bottom division of the Football League and Knighton set about building up the club who he claimed he could return to the top league of English football, the Premiership (Carlisle had previously played at that level in the 1974-75 season).
Initial success saw Carlisle win Division Three and achieve promotion in 1995, as well as reaching the final of the Football League Trophy; they were relegated the following season but promoted back again to Division Two in 1997. In 1997 they also reached a second Football League Trophy final, beating Colchester United on penalties.
In 1996 Knighton was publicly mocked over his claims to have seen a UFO. He claimed that he and his wife Rosemary had seen a UFO in 1976. The local newspaper, the "Evening News and Star", broke the story with the headline 'Knighton: Aliens Spoke To Me'.
After a poor start to the 1997-98 season, Knighton dismissed popular manager Mervyn Day and took over the management and coaching of the team himself. The move proved unsuccessful, and Carlisle were relegated back to Division Three. He kept himself as head coach until December 1998, when he handed the job over to Nigel Pearson. Knighton remained chairman of the club, but no longer had the financial resources to achieve another promotion. Carlisle struggled in the bottom division, only avoiding relegation to the Football Conference with a last-minute goal by goalkeeper Jimmy Glass, in what is one of football's most famous comebacks.
Knighton became increasingly unpopular with fans, a group of whom formed an independent supporters' trust, known initially as CCUIST and today as The United Trust to protest against his control and lobby for more fan involvement in the club. Knighton attempted to sell his stake in 2001 to Brooks Mileson but he eventually backed out of the deal. The fans instead backed John Courtenay to take over but negotiations were protracted and Knighton fired manager Roddy Collins for his comments over the deal. Eventually, after Carlisle were put into voluntary administration, Courtenay purchased the club from Knighton in July 2002 and reinstated Collins.
Read more about this topic: Michael Knighton
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