Gary Caldwell: Exeter City players behind boss says Pierce Sweeney
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Pierce Sweeney says Exeter are going through "a difficult time"
Exeter City defender Pierce Sweeney says the players are all behind manager Gary Caldwell as they try and rectify their poor run of form.
City have not won in 11 League One fixtures stretching back three months and fallen from the top of the division to one place above the drop zone.
Sweeney, 29, is City's longest-serving player with more than 300 appearances.
"The dressing room is definitely with the manager, the manager's definitely with us," Sweeney said.
"The board have come out and they're with the manager which is really good.
"It's a difficult time, I don't think I'm ever going to forget this run.
"I'm really determined for the manager to get ourselves back on track, because what he wants to do with this football club is really exciting.
"We've proved with the same group of players, bar maybe one or two that have gone, that we can win games of football in this league.
"Twelve games ago we were top of the league, football can change really quickly, and if we pick up a couple of results in the next couple of weeks and over the Christmas period I think the mindset changes completely."
Caldwell was backed by the board last month and after the 1-0 loss to Port Vale on Saturday said he would be "the first one to go and speak to the board" if he felt he had "lost the dressing room or if the club is not going in the right direction".
Sweeney first moved to Exeter in the summer of 2016 and says his experience of that first season in League Two stands him in good stead and reminds people that the campaign is far from over for Exeter.
"In my first season at this football club we were second bottom just before Christmas and we ended up making the play-offs, and I think there was probably shouting for Tis (former Exeter manager Paul Tisdale) to be gone at that stage as well," he told BBC Sport.
"Football can change pretty quickly, especially if you've got two or three games in a short number of days over the Christmas period, your league position can turn pretty quickly."