Exeter City want to keep momentum building and extend unbeaten run
WHILE it would be easy to want more of the same, given his team are unbeaten in their last four matches, Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell has challenged his players to keep building on the momentum they have found, which has helped the Grecians pull clear of the League One relegation zone.
After draws against Northampton Town and Reading, following their four-day training trip to Spain, City picked up back-to-back 2-0 home wins against relegation rivals Shrewsbury Town and Mansfield Town in the past week, which has seen them pull ten points clear of the drop zone.
“It’s hard work and sticking to the process,” he said. “We have always worked on recovering the players, making sure that is done to the maximum with medical staff, nutrition and then preparing the players, as always, with strengths and weaknesses of the opposition and building our performance levels, what we’ve done well, little things we can do better to maintain an unbeaten run that has come at just the right time.
“I think Rotherham are in a false position in the league for the quality of players that they have and they have had a difficult season. It is never easy when you drop from the division above, there is always a rebuilding process that possibly takes longer than you would expect, or hope.
“When I look at their players and the quality they have individually, we obviously know two of them very well, Zak Jules and Sam Nombe – and we know the quality those players have – and they have team-mates around them that are very much the same as them.
“We know how difficult a game it is. Away from home is never easy, it’s a long trip, but we have to be ready. The players have to build on what we’re doing and we have to maintain this level of performance and consistency and results from now until the end of the season.”
Caldwell will again come up against his fellow Scot Steve Evans, the larger than life Millers boss, who is often cast as the pantomime villain whenever the Grecians come up against one of his teams. But while the two managers have been at loggerheads on the touchline before, Caldwell has nothing but respect for the 62-year-old Glaswegian.
