Gary Caldwell is confident that his Exeter City side can get back on track, starting with tonight’s League One clash at home to Leyton Orient.

The O’s arrive in Devon as the form team of the division, winning five and drawing one of their last six league games, a run that has taken them to seventh and the fringes of the League One play-off zone.

Exeter have won just twice in 14 matches which has all but ended their ambitious hopes of a play-off challenge as they have dropped down to 17th place. Despite that, the Grecians are still closer to the play-off zone than the relegation spots, ten points adrift, while sitting 11 points above the relegation zone.

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Injuries and suspensions have not helped, nor the departure of loan star Tristan Crama, but that is all part and parcel of football and Caldwell is hoping to make new additions before the January transfer window closes on February 3.

“It’s always a concern when you don’t win football matches because that’s what we are here to do, but we have to understand where we are as a football club,” Caldwell said. “The difficulties we have in the defensive areas at the moment mean it is nowhere near the team that was playing early season and in great form.

“When that happens, you have to dig in and try and grind out results. At this moment in time, we are not managing to do that but, hopefully, with players coming back from injury and hopefully with a couple of additions – and a win – it could reignite the team again and get confidence back in the team to look forward to the rest of the season.

“Yes, we want to win games and we are disappointed with where we are, but I don’t think it’s a time to be super negative on the team, on the players. I think it’s a time to stick together, get that victory and kick on for the remainder of the season.”

For now, Caldwell has to work with what he has and City’s defensive crisis has only worsened with Jack Fitzwater suffering a hamstring injury at the weekend, which requires a scan and rules him out of tonight’s match. With no Crama, Johnly Yfeko or Pierce Sweeney as well, that is all four centre backs that City started the season with now out of action.

Cheick Diabate came on against Blackpool on Saturday and should start tonight, but fellow defender Ben Purrington, who has played on the left of a back three, seems firmly out of favour at St James Park and wasn’t even on the bench against the Tangerines.

Kevin McDonald’s selection as a sweeper against Blackpool backfired and he was also forced off with a hamstring injury on Saturday, so it is far from an ideal situation to go into a game against one of the top teams in the league right now. But despite all the issues, Caldwell wants his team to stick to their principles to give them the best chance of a result.

“They are a similar side in how they play (to earlier in the season, when City win 1-0 at Brisbane Road) but even that night, they played very well and they will feel they probably should have got something from the game,” Caldwell said on Orient.

“We were in a really good moment defensively, keeping a lot of clean sheets and the clean sheet got us the win that night, so I think that is probably the key to our performances, being more resilient and having a better foundation defensively to give us a chance to win.

“There has only been the Birmingham game recently where we haven’t managed to score, we have been scoring goals and I do think when we score goals, the defensive solidity of our team and our possession game needs to be better to then control that ability to keep clean sheets. I think that is vital for us as a team moving forward.

“When we play well, we are a compact team, in and out of possession. We have to get back to that and get back to clean sheets and that will give us a great platform to win games.”

One positive for the Grecians is the form of striker Millenic Alli, who struck his tenth goal of the season with Exeter’s consolation goal against Blackpool. In fact, it is 14 goals in 42 appearances since the 24-year-old Irishman joined from AFC Halifax Town.

“It’s been very good,” Caldwell said of Alli’s scoring record. “He’s a threat and he is always a handful for defenders, he can play anywhere across the front and quite often this year, we have played him on the left or the right when he actually gets most of his goals when he’s playing down the middle.

“On Saturday, we again moved him into the middle with Josh (Magennis) later in the game when we brought Tony on and he gets his goal because any time he is in and around the box, he’s a real threat and can score goals.

“I am absolutely delighted for him. To make that step up and score that amount of goals so quickly shows the quality that he has.”