Gary Caldwell bemoans Exeter’s lack of a killer touch

Posted Wednesday, February 15, 2023 by PA

Exeter manager Gary Caldwell rued his side’s lack of a killer touch after they were held to a goalless draw by Shrewsbury at St James Park.

In a game of few chances, Tom Bayliss came closest in the first half for the Shrews, only to smash his shot against the crossbar after superbly taking a deep cross into his path, while Exeter’s best opportunity fell to Alex Hartridge, who saw his header superbly saved at point-blank range by visiting goalkeeper Marko Marosi.

“It was a lot like Saturday (a 1-0 defeat at Burton). I thought we had a lot of control,” Caldwell said. “We changed the shape and worked on it for 30 minutes yesterday and I thought the lads were brilliant in how they brought that to the game.

“I think we are controlling games far better which is allowing us to keep clean sheets, but it’s that final action that we have to work on.

“But the players’ effort – to have one training session working on the change of shape and how we wanted the full-backs to play – I thought was excellent.

“They have won six games in a row and are the form team in the league. They are a physical team and put you under pressure and I felt if we matched them up, it would have been a 50-50 game.

“In previous games, their wing-backs have jumped a lot higher than they did tonight and were a lot more aggressive, but I think they came and showed us respect and looked happy to take a point later on in the game when we were throwing strikers on looking to get all three.”

For Shrewsbury, it is now seven games unbeaten, and manager Steve Cotterill said: “It’s a very good point. I think we’ve had the best chances in the game.

“It was going to be difficult before the game with the situation we are in without two recognised centre-backs and then, all of a sudden, we lose another centre-back and, by the end of the game, we’ve got one centre-back.

“That has been an incredibly difficult period to get over because it disrupts the flow of the rest of the team that we have had over recent weeks.

“So (it was an) incredibly tough game for our boys and that could well turn out to be an important point for us.

“We had the best chances, that was the annoying thing. But what was pleasing when Tom Bayliss missed that chance was that he missed one earlier in the season at home and wasted the next 40 minutes thinking about that chance he missed and he didn’t do that today.

“The boys stuck their necks on the block and it was a hard-earned point. We certainly don’t deserve to lose the game.”