Gary Caldwell urges Exeter to ‘smell blood’ after settling for Reading draw

Exeter manager Gary Caldwell wants his team to ‘smell blood’ when they get on top in games and felt it was two points dropped in the 1-1 League One draw with Reading.

Jayden Wareham, who joined the Grecians from the Royals in the summer, cancelled out an early Jack Marriott strike – with both goals coming in the opening 11 minutes.

Both teams had chances to win it but had to settle for a share of the spoils in an entertaining encounter.

Caldwell said: “Frustration is my overriding emotion. We could have won the game, especially in that first half.

“I thought we reacted extremely well to giving a poor goal away, we could have been leading at half-time and should have done more with the opportunities we allowed to pass us by.

“Reading had chances in the second half but the game kind of petered out and it feels like two points dropped right now. In 24-48 hours, it might feel more like a point gained but that’s two games unbeaten now.

“I really liked the reaction of everyone from the disappointment of conceding that early goal – the players, the supporters, everyone. Johnly (Yfeko) made a big mistake (that led to the Reading goal) and his reaction was first class.

“That’s the mentality we need. We just keep going and after reacting positively, we should have been leading at half-time.

“We scored a brilliant goal but we need consistency to our attacking play and we need to smell blood in those moments.”

In the proverbial game of two halves, Exeter the better in the first and the Royals dominating after the break, visiting manager Noel Hunt felt his side could have won the game on their second-half performance.

“I thought we were a bit better than last week with our structure – in the second half especially – and we created enough chances to have won the game,” he said.

“We created two or three very good chances in the second half and we could have put the game to bed but we didn’t and obviously we have to finish with a draw.

“The pitch was a wee bit tricky, it was a bit bobbly and lively and we were unable to get the ball under control.

“Jack had a great chance with that opportunity in the second half but the ball just got stuck under his feet and it was just one of those things – he isn’t going to score every week.

“What we know is that if Jack keeps getting in there, he will keep scoring goals.

“It was good to get a first start for Paddy (O’Connor), he’s done enough training now and we have to get him on the pitch. He’s a warrior and I thought he was great.”