Exeter City still can have a successful season despite recent results
Exeter lost their fourth loss in six games, and they have only scored six goals in eight games since City beat Barnet in the FA Cup first round in early November.
However, with the likes of Reece Cole, Demetri Mitchell, and forgotten man Pat Jones back in training and knocking on the first team door, Caldwell is confident that City’s fortunes will change and that they will face 2025 with optimism.
“The schedule for the next few weeks is crazy and we need everyone fit and as good as they can be,” Caldwell told reporters. “For some people, it’s obviously coming back from an injury and needing minutes, while others have been playing regularly, so everyone has to keep playing and recovering, coming out onto the training pitch to prepare for the next game and make sure we’re at our best because, again, if we are, I believe we can beat any team at this level.
“What I do believe is that we can have an amazing second half to this season, but there is a lot of hard work ahead for us to do that.”
City’s defence has just recovered from a difficult run of games in which they faced big-spending Birmingham twice, league leaders Wycombe, high-flying Lincoln City, Wrexham, and Stockport County.
They have only two points from their past five League One games and haven’t won since defeating Charlton Athletic at St James Park on November 9. However, Caldwell believes his side is making progress.
“After the first Birmingham game, we played Wrexham, Wycombe, and Stockport, and we felt that we needed to see improvement in both performance and belief and understanding.” Even if we haven’t achieved the desired goals, I believe we have witnessed progress based only on statistics.
“From the first Birmingham game to the second, we hurt them a lot more, generated more scoring opportunities, and that is what we need to keep concentrating on: the process and performance. If we do it and improve at it, I am confident we will win a lot of games between now and the conclusion of the season.”
City’s run of matches doesn’t get any tougher with eighth-placed Barnsley up next at St James Park on Saturday, and they’ll need to improve again – particularly in the final third – if they’re to take the points.
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