Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell was upbeat this afternoon, despite seeing his side lose 3-0 at home to Derby County in midweek.
Max Bird, Nathaniel Mendez-Laing and Tom Barkuizen were on the scoresheet for the home side, who sit in second in the third tier. Jack Aitchison had the home side’s best opportunity, but he fired against the post.
The Grecians sit in 13th position in League One and have taken an impressive 12 points from a possible 18, including a 2-1 victory against promotion-chasing Peterborough United. The only defeats coming against Derby and Bristol Rovers.
The Devon-based club slipped to 21st on New Year’s Day following a 3-2 defeat at Reading. Although recent form has improved, the goal-shy club have scored just 25 goals in 33 matches this season.
Caldwell guided the club to a respectable 14th placed finish last season after taking over from Matt Taylor in October. Addressing their defeat at Pride Park on Tuesday night, the manager said his team must learn from the mistakes which ultimately cost them:
“It’s different styles, it is moments in the game and when we lose the ball, we have to understand in those moments when we are open that we have to get to the ball quicker, or we have to stop the game,” Caldwell told reporters, via Devon Live.
“We have to understand when we are passing the ball around at the back, we aren’t doing it to look good, we are not doing it for stats, we are doing it to move the opposition about, so that when we get the moment to pass it forward, we have to pass it forward and we have to hurt them more.
“It’s fascinating that, from that game, we can take so much out of it for the development of our team because we are an extremely young team that is developing and finding its feet at this level and I think Derby, who are an older and experienced team, showed that that is what the best looks like.
“We faced it a few times last year with Ipswich and Sheffield Wednesday and I think Derby are a team that are going to go on and get promotion, so that’s the best that there is at this level and we did a lot of things right against them. But the mistakes we made were punished heavily and we have to learn from it.”
They have the opportunity to move level on points with Lincoln City tomorrow afternoon when they travel to the LNER Stadium.
Writer’s View
Exeter are one of those comfortable sides, not going up or down just sitting in mid-table and happy with it. That being said, this is their second full season back in League One so 13th could be seen as overachieving by some.
With players like Will Aimson, Reece Cole and Jack Aitchison, Lincoln will have to be on their game to get maximum points from this one. The Grecians and the Imps are both in form so this will be a tough game for each side.
