Caldwell wants improvement after loss to Barnsley

Gary Caldwell has seen his side win one League One game in the past two months

Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell says his side "have to be better" after losing 2-1 at home to Barnsley.

The Grecians started well, taking an early lead through Josh Magennis, but Barnsley took hold of the game and scored twice in 10 minutes after the break.

The loss meant Exeter have only won one of their last nine League One matches, though all the games they have not won have come against sides in the top 10.

"It was a hugely disappointing result and after such a good start," Caldwell told BBC Radio Devon as his side dropped to 15th place.

"We were in the game, we were playing really well, scored, created other chances where we could have probably been more in front and then just seemed to lose energy, sat off the game, allowed them to dominate territory.

"We even gave them too many times where they could pass the ball and get their head up to play forward, so we all have to look at ourselves and say 'we have to be better'.

"I think it was a game that was there for us to go and win, and we've managed to find a way to lose it."

Having gone 2-1 down, Caldwell made four changes to try to rectify the result, but to no avail.

He says he is frustrated with how his side played as they conspired to lose the game.

"We have to be more aggressive and we have to run more than we're running at the moment," he added.

"It's a simple thing in football but if we're not running, if you're not getting pressure on the ball, if you're not winning second balls, the game's really hard and we made the game far too hard for ourselves.

"When we made the changes I thought we were better, I thought we controlled the game a bit more as well.

"I think passing the ball is a huge aspect to our game. If we keep passing the ball to the opposition then we're never going to establish control in the game.

"So I thought we passed the ball better and finished the game better but by then we were chasing the game and it was too little too late."