Caldwell hopes new approach can work for Exeter

Gary Caldwell will celebrate his third anniversary as Exeter City manager next month

Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell hopes a new approach to the season from him and his coaching staff will make his side's form more consistent.

The Exeter boss has seen his side win every other match they have played so far this season.

The Grecians are 13th in League One with three victories and four losses under the new plan, which sees Exeter split the season into eight blocks of matches.

"We're trying to take a more long-term view to the season as a whole, because we had two really fast starts in the previous years and they came at a cost pre-Christmas and the busy Christmas period last year into January where we had a bad run," Caldwell said.

"We've done a lot of work as a staff on how we split that up and how we prepare for games, how we review games, and so far I can see how that's going to give us a benefit later on in the season."

Exeter began their second block last week with a 1-0 loss at Rotherham United and travel to Port Vale this week before an EFL Trophy tie with Cardiff City next Tuesday.

"We basically almost try and give ourselves different ways to look at every game," Caldwell added.

"We have points totals for every game, expected points totals for different categories within the season so automatic promotion, play-off, mid-table.

"We call it 'sustainability' - but that would be staying in League One - and what each game looks like and what the overall points total for the block looks like to put us in one of those brackets.

"We felt that in the last two years when we got on bad runs there was a need for the next game and you had to win the next game and the next game was the most important.

"Whereas this gives us ways of looking across the board in, not a long-term view as in 46 league games, but a long-term view as in seven games.

"Whilst Rotherham wasn't good we can put that to bed quicker because we now have six games in the block.

"I think for this block for automatic promotion we need roughly about 14 points, there's still 18 points to play for, so it keeps everything open for a longer period of time within the different categories that we're looking at.

"We felt the first block it worked well, we will then analyse and adapt how we look at that as we go through the season."