Gary Caldwell rues Exeter’s failure to ‘kill the game off’ in Northampton loss

Exeter boss Gary Caldwell rued his side’s failure to “kill the game off” after they suffered a 2-1 League One defeat to Northampton on Saturday.

The Grecians were ahead early at Sixfields courtesy of Tristan Crama’s header but they missed several chances to extend their lead and paid the price in the second half.

Callum Morton levelled before Cameron McGeehan converted Jon Guthrie’s cross to win it with 13 minutes to play.

“It’s a disappointing result but I thought the performance for large parts was very good,” said Caldwell.

“The way we started the game was outstanding and we scored with a set-piece that we’ve been working on but we should have scored more goals in that period.

“The game became a bit scrappy later in the first half but it was a similar story in the second half because we started really well and created loads of chances.

“We could have been further ahead at half-time and we definitely should have been further ahead after 60 minutes, but we couldn’t get that second goal which would have killed the game off.

“The 1-0 scoreline puts the team under pressure and we gave two bad goals away so there’s lessons to be learned but I can’t fault the players for their efforts and for large parts of the performance.

“The game should be finished before Northampton got back into it but we came here to win and ultimately we haven’t done that so we’ll look at those small details and be better next week.”

The win was Northampton’s first of the season and came thanks to goals from two summer signings.

“It was really important to get three points today,” admitted manager Jon Brady. “It was a hard-fought win and Exeter are an excellent side.

“They beat Rotherham last week and the way they try to play makes it difficult but I thought our press was really good because we blocked a lot of passing lines.

“Their goalkeeper is almost like a quarterback and the way we tried to press them – and the aggressive stance we took – meant we had to suffer and we were a bit exposed down the sides with the pace they have.

“But Aaron (McGowan) recovered well and we wanted to be aggressive because we were at home and we wanted to bounce back and I thought we showed how good we can be.

“We didn’t want to take a backward step and we made some adjustments at half-time and I was really pleased for Callum and Cam to score their goals.”