Caldwell finds encouragement despite Exeter’s EFL Trophy exit

Gary Caldwell expressed satisfaction with his team’s display during their 2-1 home loss to Birmingham City in the Vertu Trophy, even though his side currently sits 11th in League One, seven points adrift of the play-off positions. Both clubs had significantly altered their starting elevens compared to the previous encounter a fortnight earlier, when the Blues secured a 2-0 victory at St James Park. Birmingham took the lead in the 22nd minute through former Exeter City loanee Luke Harris. However, Exeter’s captain, Pierce Sweeney, netted an uncommon goal 10 minutes later, leveling the score for the Grecians. Keshi Anderson then sealed Birmingham’s progression to the last 16, converting Ayumu Yokoyama’s cross in the 78th minute, shortly after an earlier Birmingham goal had been disallowed for offside. Speaking to BBC Radio Devon, Caldwell stated: “I have to look at the performance. To make six changes and play against the best team in the league – no matter how many changes they made – they had to bring some of the big guns on in the second half. I thought we played extremely well. We had a different gameplan slightly to last time in terms of in possession – I thought it caused them a lot of problems. The disappointing thing is we gave two bad goals away and missed good opportunities to go and win the game. I’m never happy at losing games of football, but there is a lot we can take from the game. A lot of the players got minutes, the competition for places is getting bigger within the group and that gives me great hope moving into the Christmas period and moving into the second half of the season.”