TRISTAN Crama’s return to Brentford – and subsequent move to Championship side Millwall – could not have happened at a worse time for Exeter City as they head for what is their toughest assignment of the season at Birmingham City today.

As expected, the Blues are flying high at the top of the League One table having spent around £20 million in the summer building a squad capable of getting them out of the division at the first attempt. But while that eye-bulging amount is more than enough for this level, it still has to be spent wisely and correctly.

Blues have done just that with the likes of former City youngster Jay Stansfield, Emil Hansson, Alex Cochrane, Willum Willumsson, Christoph Klarer, Marc Leonard, Lyndon Dykes, Scott Wright and Tomoki Iwata arriving in significant monetary deals. And Birmingham have shown in two previous clashes with City this season that those players have gelled and form a formidable team.

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City, on the other hand, head to St Andrews today still reeling from the blow of losing arguably their player of the year so far in Crama, who was recalled by Brentford and then sold to Millwall. With Johnly Yfeko also picking up an injury this week and captain Pierce Sweeney out injured, the Grecians look decidedly light heading to the second city, despite their form of late being good.

Last week’s excellent FA Cup win over Oxford United proved that, when on form, City can compete with teams higher than them in the ladder and they will have to be at their best to get anything today with Birmingham unbeaten at St Andrews in the league all season.

“The message pre-Oxford for me was that the Wycombe and Bolton games, there was a shift in mentality and a shift in how we played those games,” Caldwell said. “The end result was not the outcome that we wanted, but in football, that can happen at times.

“What I wanted to see was progression from those games and I thought we saw that on Saturday.

“I thought, again, our game and the way we want to play was clear from the very start. We had to adapt, we had to change the shape a couple of times out of possession and our players’ ability to adapt to an opposition - and to be clear on how we’re going to do that - was outstanding.

“The progression again was good, but now we look at Birmingham and we say: ‘Can we do that again? Can we be even better in certain aspects of our game?’ and if we can keep progressing like that, then yeah, we don’t fear anyone.

“I think we’re a real dangerous team when we play with real clarity on who we are and how we’re going to win games and when we play with the energy and the desire and commitment we had on Saturday then yeah we can win a lot of games from now to the end of the season.”

While City may be low in terms of playing personnel, they will be boosted by the support of the Red Army with close to 2,000 making the trip up the M5. Exeter’s initial 1,500 allocation sold out in a matter of hours, despite the lateness with which tickets went on sale, but another 400 have been snapped up this week with fans eager to support their team and get a taste of a new ground for many. This is Exeter’s first trip to St Andrews since a League Cup first round first leg tie in 1999 and a first league clash since November 1991.

“I don’t think many supporters will have been in that stadium, we haven’t played a league game against Birmingham for a long time, so it’s special for them to go there,” Caldwell said.

“The numbers that are travelling are quite incredible – and in January, when it is cold, financially it is a difficult time and so that is incredible that there are that amount of people going there.

“I went to the Wrexham game there and it is a fantastic stadium and brilliant atmosphere. I am delighted so many fans are going to give us their backing which we are going to need to go and win the game.”