Caldwell rues slow start as Grecians go down to Cobblers

EXETER City manager Gary Caldwell admitted the Grecians gave themselves a mountain to climb after a dreadful start to Saturday's 2-0 League One defeat away to Northampton Town.

- DANIEL CLARK [e-mail]

The game was over before it started as City conceded inside 60 seconds and then fell 2-0 down inside 15 minutes.

Ethan Wheatley fired home a lovely finish from a narrow angle, although there was a hint of offside in the buildup, to open the scoring.

Northampton then doubled their lead shortly after following dreadful defending from a set-piece with left Max Dyche with an easy finish.

It took City more than an hour to have a shot on target and it wasn’t until the 87th minute they forced the Cobblers goalkeeper into a save as for all the possession and control they had, they created very little against a side who had yet to win this season before Saturday.

"The game was over before it started," admitted Caldwell. "We started really poorly after defending so well Tuesday and gave two very bad goals away. We gave ourselves a mountain to climb and after that it took us too long to get going and play the type of football we wanted.