With the clocks going back this weekend, Exeter City and Gary Caldwell must be wishing they could go back to 6 weeks ago when everything seemed a little rosier.

City hosted Lincoln City, who were fresh off the back of 2 wins and sitting in 9th position in the League One table.

Listening to the various interviews from the players and management this week, it was clear that the players had been hurting and struggling for confidence.

With confidence at an all time low for this group of the players, coming off the back of 6 straight league defeats, it was imperative that City did not lose and make it an un-magnificent 7 straight defeats.

Events started with City & Lincoln paying tribute to those fallen in war and conflict for our country, with this weekend being City’s turn to pay their respects and celebrate remembrance. As the exaltation was read and the last post was played, the rain hammered down onto SJP. The weather somewhat matching the mood of recent weeks.

The game got underway and Lincoln undoubtedly started the stronger of the sides and looked capable on the ball. They stroked the ball around at ease and were looking very confident off the back of their recent results. On the flip side, there were clearly nerves in the City side. A couple of early defensive misunderstandings between Alex Hartridge & Will Aimson created angst in the crowd, and you could see the players showing their frustrations with each other at various points.

Lincoln had an early chance through their no 21, Hakeeb Adelakun, who picked the ball up in the midfield and was allowed to effortlessly stroll past the City midfield, he then proceeded to drop a shoulder which easily evaded Aimson & Sweeney. The goal opened up and luckily, the Lincoln man didn’t connect sweetly with the ball, but Vil Sinisalo still produced a good stop and pushed the ball wide.

The visitors took the lead in the 20th minute through Alistair Smith in what was another poor City goal to concede. Aitchison cleared from a Lincoln corner out towards the touchline where Admiral Muskwe received the ball. Unfortunately, the Luton loanee couldn’t sort his feet out and ended up mis controlling the ball, which allowed Lincoln to attack down the left. Adelakun attempted a step over, which was poorly executed and the ball filtered through to Will Aimson, who had time to clear the ball up the pitch, but he decided to clear the ball out for a throw in what was a panicky clearance . From the resulting long throw, Aimson made a meal of dealing the with the ball, partly unsighted by Reece Cole, which allowed Lincoln to play the ball across goal to the unmarked Smith who hit the ball into the roof of the net.

City struggled to muster anything of note in the immediate aftermath of the goal and movement off the ball was again lacking, leaving players on the ball struggling to find any passing options. This led to some boos of frustration from the Big Bank, but thankfully that was a generally isolated incident.

To City’s credit, they did keep going and managed to create 2 or 3 good chances in the first half, which our strikers should have done better with. James Scott had a header on goal from a Reece Cole cross just before the half hour mark, but the Scot headed straight at the Imps keeper. To be fair to Scott, he was on the stretch and it was probably only a half chance.

Just before half time, Demetri Mitchell managed to slide Admiral Muskwe through on the goal for the strikers first sight of goal. Muskwe was through one on one goal against the goalkeeper but dragged his shot wide of the far post.

City then produced their best move of the half. Mitchell’s willingness to run the flank got City up the pitch and they then worked a chance from a good passing move (7 passes) out to Trevitt who found himself on the right wing, he produced a sumptuous cross onto the head of James Scott who looked certain to score, but he didn’t connect properly with the ball and headed into the ground, which gave the Imps keeper time to backpeddle and push the ball wide. Although we still weren’t converting chances, the fact that we had created 2-3 good opportunities gave some optimism going into the half time break.

After the break, City improved. In the 58th minute, Caldwell made a treble substitution, with Wildschut, Harper & Carroll replacing Muskwe, Aitchison & Kite. From that point on, City seemed able to cause Lincoln more issues, with Wildschut & Harper both making positive impacts in the final third and on the flanks. Tom Carroll was able to get on the ball and managed to play passes into the strikers and final third more regularly.

It must be said, as City did improve, Lincoln’s tactics seemed to change. It felt like they stopped playing their football and were more concerned with stopping City, through excessive force, with some very questionable challenges on Aitchison & Trevitt. The SJP crowd were certainly witness to another poor refereeing display.

City had a couple of very good free kick opportunities on the edge of the box that they could and should have done better with. Firstly through Trevitt, who hit a tame effort straight to the keeper and then with Demetri Mitchell who struck a good free kick that produced a decent save from the Imps keeper, albeit it was a bit of a “save for the cameras”.

City did have an almighty let off in the 72nd minute when Lincoln’s Sean Roughan somehow managed to miss a near open goal. From the resulting corner of Mitchell’s free kick, Lincoln broke very quickly. The keeper threw out to the right and they countered with speed. The ball worked its way to the back post where Roughan only had to tap the ball into the empty net, but he decided to hit the ball with so much power that his shot was not controlled and it cannoned off the crossbar. A huge let off.

City’s persistence and resilience finally paid off when they equalised through Trevitt on the 81st minute. Sweeney & Mitchell combined down the right and it was Mitchell that beat his full back and raced to the touchline, he lofted a ball into the box where Trevitt was waiting to steer the ball into the far corner of the goal. 1-1 and a huge outpouring of relief from the stands.

City had a great chance to counter in the 89th minute. Reece Cole cleared from a Lincoln corner and the ball came to Mitchell, who played the ball out to the left for Vinny Harper to run onto. Harper was running forward at speed, which led to a desperate attempt from Lincoln’s captain, Paudie O’Connor to stop the counter. O’Connor managed to gain some ground on Harper and then wrestled him to the floor, placing both of his hands around the shoulders of Harper and throwing him to the ground. It was a challenge you are more likely to have seen in last night’s Rugby World Cup Final and it was the most cynical foul I have seen for some time. The challenge resulted in a yellow card for the Lincoln skipper, but I really don’t see how he wasn’t shown a red. Vil Sinisalo also picked up a yellow for his protestations.

In the final few minutes, there was time for City to pick up another injury, with Reece Cole having to be substituted after what looked like a potentially serious injury. He was seen punching the turf and was unable to walk off the pitch without assistance. An injury to Cole would be another blow to this City side. Cole having another good game yesterday.

The full time whistle went soon after and the Lincoln players celebrated as if they had won the game, which shows the amount of pressure they felt they were under in the second half.

On reflection, City could have nicked the 3 points, but the 2nd half performance, and particularly the last 20 minutes, has to be used a springboard to better things. There are still clearly things to work on, but after the confidence zapping run City have been on, not losing was always the most important thing yesterday.

City still look light in central midfield and I think we might have to change formation to accommodate a third central midfielder, making us more solid and also giving the backline more protection. We also need to find a way of finding our strikers more often and the strikers also need to work harder by pressing the opposition backline and setting the tone for the players behind them.

Yesterdays game saw James Scott have the fewest touches (27) of any player that played 90 minutes and while Admiral Muskwe was only on the pitch for 58 minutes, he only had 8 touches of the ball. Reece Cole and Demetri Mitchell were City’s most creative players, both creating 4 chances for the team. Cole also made 10 passes into the final third, which was equalled by Tom Carroll.

City produced 300 accurate passes yesterday, but significantly, 182 of these came in our own half, with 118 in the opposition half. It’s clear we need to improve getting the ball into the final third more often. The potential absence of Cole will not help. When City did get the ball in the box, they only scored 1 from 4 big chances.

Credit should also go to the crowd for yesterday. In general, they stayed with the team and got behind them, in particular the drummer and the lads on the Big Bank who didn’t stop the whole game.

City now have 2 cup games to contend with at SJP in the next few days. Tuesday night sees Michael Carrick’s Middlesbrough come to Devon, with a place in the Carabao Cup Quarter Final at stake. Boro lost at the weekend to Stoke after winning their previous 6 games. City will be massive underdogs for this one, but hopefully the fact that it’s almost a free hit and there are no points to play for, will free City from the shackles.

It feels like the Boro game is coming at the wrong time. After a more promising display yesterday, it would have been nice to follow up with another good performance and result. Few will expect a City win on Tuesday, but another good performance, against a good Championship side, should help to further boost morale.

It will take a big effort from the team and the crowd to get anything from Tuesday, but stranger things have happened. Let’s get into Boro and give it a good go and see where it takes us.