A difficult decision looms for Exeter City. When the club’s board gave a vote of confidence on Wednesday to Gary Caldwell, their manager, they were not expecting it to be followed by their heaviest league defeat since 1958.
Saturday’s 7-0 thrashing away to Bolton Wanderers, which Caldwell called “embarrassing”, means Exeter have taken only one point from their past nine League One matches. Having been top of the table after taking 16 points from their opening eight games, Exeter have plummeted to 20th courtesy of the sort of run that makes a manager fear the worst.
At Exeter, who are owned by their supporters’ trust, such change is not undertaken lightly. Caldwell, in charge for the past 13 months, is only their third permanent manager over the past 17 years. As recently as Thursday, the former Celtic captain was speaking publicly about his plans for the January transfer window.
Yet asked after Saturday’s humiliation if he felt he still had the board’s support, Caldwell said: “That’s not a question I can answer. All I know is the board and I have had great dialogue this week, and we know what we’re doing moving forward, but in the short term we have to win a game of football very quickly.”
Exeter looked devoid of confidence as they were overrun by a Bolton side whose victory took them to the top of League One. Having taken time to find their rhythm, the home side led 2-0 at half-time after Jack Iredale’s far-post header and a Victor Adeboyejo tap-in.
Bolton then cut loose; Paris Maghoma scored with a rising angled drive, Dion Charles gobbled up two more from close range, Kyle Dempsey headed in from a corner, and Dan Nlundulu swept in at the near post to make it 7-0.
Caldwell has not been helped by injuries, nor a failure to replace adequately Sam Nombe, last season’s leading scorer, after he was sold to Rotherham United for £1 million at the end of August.
That could not, though, excuse the abject capitulation at the Toughsheet Community Stadium.
“This, I hope, is rock bottom,” Caldwell said, pointing to Tuesday night’s home match against Shrewsbury Town as a chance to start climbing out of the trough.
In the boardroom, they can recall far worse moments than this. The supporters’ trust took control of the club 20 years ago as they faced financial ruin after relegation from the Football League. Long-term sustainability will always trump short-termism.
“It would be easy to change the manager and throw money at the problem, but if you do that, then you have to keep doing that,” Nick Hawker, chairman of the trust, said. “You have to plan and stick to the plan. We picked the manager because he has a pedigree and he bought into our philosophy.”
Right now, however, long-term thinking offers little consolation to the Exeter fans who made a 500-mile-plus round trip on Saturday to watch their team lose their fifth away game in a row — a run in which they have scored one goal and conceded 19.
“I was up at quarter to four to scrape the ice off the car and catch the bus up,” Tony Leach, an Exeter fan for more than 60 years, said.
“You can’t keep changing the manager all the time, but I think he’s got to change the system. We can’t afford to go down to League Two. That would be a disaster.”
Vardy shows class with brace
Jamie Vardy underlined his importance to Leicester City by scoring twice as a second-half substitute to secure a 2-0 win against Watford that gave his team breathing space at the top of the Championship.
Vardy, the 36-year-old striker, made up for missing two good opportunities by putting Leicester ahead in the 76th minute before scoring a penalty in stoppage time. “When I saw Jamie missing twice, I thought it was not going to happen, but Jamie has scored goals all his life and he will continue to do so,” Enzo Maresca, the Leicester manager, said.
“This is the reason why he’s Jamie Vardy. He’s scored more than 100 goals in the Premier League and he has always scored goals in his life.”
After successive defeats had led to Leicester’s lead at the top being reduced to goal difference, Saturday’s win, combined with Ipswich Town’s 2-0 away defeat by West Bromwich Albion, moved them three points clear.
Rooney not satisfied despite breaking Birmingham duck
Relief at last for Wayne Rooney, who finally celebrated his first win as Birmingham City manager at the sixth time of asking.
Rooney’s side came from behind to beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1, eventually clinching victory in the 81st minute through Jordan James, who insisted that the team were progressing.
“We’ve not been on the run we wanted and to break that today was massive from us,” James, 19, said. “We are trying to change the way we play and I think you saw a few signs of that today, you could see glimpses of where it’s working and we are hurting teams. So hopefully this is the start of a good run.”
A narrow win against the team cut off at the foot of the Championship table brought only limited satisfaction for Rooney, however. “Forget the fans, my reaction at half-time wasn’t good to the players. That’s why my voice has gone,” he said.
“I’ve seen an improvement week by week so if that first half was four weeks ago I could have understood it, but it was unrecognisable to what we’ve been doing during the international break.”
Manning savours first win as Bristol City hold nerve
Like Rooney, Liam Manning was able to savour a first victory in a new job, although the Bristol City head coach hit that particular landmark in only his second game — and his first at home — since succeeding Nigel Pearson at Ashton Gate.
It appeared as though celebrations may be put on hold, however, when Middlesbrough fought back to level through a Zak Vyner own goal and an assured finish from Matt Crooks. Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Tommy Conway’s penalty had put Manning’s side two up.
But Mark Sykes provided the decisive moment in the game when he scored the 67th-minute winning goal.
“Hopefully we don’t have too many games where we are two ahead and allow the opposition back to 2-2,” Manning said. “But it’s about having different learning experiences and the takeaway is the response. It would have been easy to go under.
“It’s obviously a proud moment for me to play the first game here. We are in the early stages of how we want to build so the big thing is sticking together.”
Portsmouth’s unbeaten run halted emphatically
Portsmouth’s club-record 27-game unbeaten league run that extended back to March came to an abrupt halt when they suffered a 4-0 home defeat by Blackpool.
Owen Dale, who spent last season on loan at Fratton Park, put the visitors ahead and Jack Beesley added a second before Portsmouth were reduced to ten men after the dismissal of Joe Morrell. CJ Hamilton and Albie Morgan completed the scoring.
The loss allowed Bolton Wanderers to move above John Mousinho’s side to the top of the table and Connor Shaughnessy, the Portsmouth defender, believes his team will be anxious to respond when they play away to Burton Albion on Tuesday night. “Obviously the immediate feeling is one of disappointment and it will probably take 24 hours to get over that,” he said.
“But we know we’ve got a game on Tuesday night where we can set things straight and are really looking forward to that.”
Blackpool, meanwhile, flexed their promotion credentials with this emphatic victory. They have won their past two games 4-0 and are outside the play-off places only on goal difference.
Mullin treble keeps Wrexham rolling
Paul Mullin struck a hat-trick as Wrexham beat Morecambe 6-0 to move to second in League Two, five points behind Stockport County, whose 12-game winning run — a joint-record in the fourth tier — was brought to an end after a 2-1 defeat by Newport County at Rodney Parade.
Wrexham have won six of their past eight league games and after a slow start to this campaign, at least compared with 2022-23, when he scored 46 goals, Mullin is finding his rhythm. “Paul has scored a few anyway this season but that was just like him last season, when he gets the ball in or near the box and it goes in the back of the net,” the Wrexham midfielder Andy Cannon said. “That’s what you expect from him and he does that so well.
“We needed to bounce back after last weekend [when they lost away to Accrington Stanley] and we did that superbly today. We played some great football at times. When we are passing and playing like that it’s a joy to play in. We’ve got healthy competition here and that keeps you on your toes.”
