EXETER CITY BOSS LAMENTS: Birmingham City’s “Defeat” To Shrewsbury Have Made Me To Realize That..

EXETER CITY BOSS LAMENTS: Birmingham City’s “Defeat” To Shrewsbury Have Made Me To Realize, And Understand That They Have…

I watched the Shrewsbury Town defeat and Birmingham City will be kicking themselves

Exeter City boss Gary Caldwell believes that if Birmingham City played Shrewsbury Town 10 times on the spin, based on what he saw and the patterns of play from Saturday’s game, Blues would win on at least nine occasions. Blues require a response when they head to St James Park tonight for their rearranged fixture – the second of three road trips this week, with Blackpool to come at the weekend.

Caldwell has watched video of the game on Saturday, which Blues lost 3-2 – only their second defeat of the campaign but their third game in the league without a win – and has determined that everything fell into place on the day for Shrewsbury, who were

The Scot, whose brother Steven played for Blues between 2011 and 2013, claimed they would be kicking themselves for not doing enough to win the game on the day and doesn’t believe the final result was necessarily a true reflection of how the game panned out.

“New manager bounce without a doubt, but a fantastic result for Gareth Ainsworth and for Shrewsbury,” Caldwell told DevonLive, “but I always look at games and think if that game was played 10 times, Shrewsbury would be lucky to win one.

“They got it right on the day – their energy levels, how they shut them down had that manager bounce effect. They scored from set pieces, they scored from counter attacks, so every opportunity they had they scored. It was one of those games. I think when you analyse it as a coach and you see what Birmingham do, they’ll be kicking themselves.”

Possession heavy Blues will come up against a side tonight who also like to have the ball; the Grecians were well beaten by Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground on Saturday and have only won one of their last five games, having previously been in the play-offs places in mid-October. Supporter-owned Exeter, who’ll likely line up with ex Blue Ryan Woods in midfield, will have to be at their very best, their manager has declared.

We spoke about how good a team Birmingham are and what they do,” Caldwell continued. “They actually play very similar to ourselves in terms of their set-up, how they try and dominate the possession. They’re by far the best possession-based team in this league and their rotations and how they try and play the game is quite similar to the set-up that we have, definitely in possession.

“We know where it is and, like I said on Saturday, after the game, now we have to work on it and now we have to stop it on the night. When we get the ball, we have to be really brave because they’re a team that doesn’t often not have the ball. I think the best possession against them this year is Fulham at 46% in the Carabao Cup. They’re a Premier League team and they still couldn’t dominate them with possession.

“When we have the ball, we need to make sure we’re brave and we need to make sure they suffer because I think when you do dominate the ball that much as a team week in week out, when somebody you know takes the ball away from you, it can hurt you. There’s been lots to digest and process for the players and they need to be clear come 7.45pm. It’s going to take a huge effort to win the game.”