AFTER a run that has brought just two wins and just ten points in 15 games, then you can understand why some Exeter City fans are calling for the head of manager Gary Caldwell. But is it fair and justified?

Last season, Caldwell’s Grecians endured a similar sorry spell which also led to him coming under fire, but the manager and his players turned things around, thanks to a productive January transfer window in which the players that came in made a difference and shot the Grecians back up the league table.

This time around, it feels different because what was supposed to be a quiet January with one or two additions to boost the squad has turned into a nightmare one with players unexpectedly leaving and the squad Caldwell assembled falling apart through departure and injury, foircing him to make additions he had not planned.

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Tristan Crama’s return to Brentford and subsequent £1.5 million sale to Millwall – where he has excelled in his first two games for the club – was a hammer blow. Millenic Alli’s £1.5 million sale to Luton Town was understandable, given the huge profit made on a player signed just 12 months ago, while the injuries to three central defenders in Pierce Sweeney, Johnly Yfeko and Jack Fitzwater are further significant blows that have affected the make-up of the team immensely. In this week have come Ryan Trevitt and Alex Hartridge on loan.

There are mitigating circumstances, but fans don’t want excuses and Caldwell has come out fighting ahead of today’s League One trip to Stevenage – 3-2 winners at big spending Wrexham in midweek.

“You don’t want it, obviously, but I have had it before and I think it is a small minority again and I think we’ve proven last year in a difficult situation that we know how to come out of it,” Caldwell said of those critical supporters. “But I think we have to get some perspective of where the club is at.

“We are at a really high level, we are competing in competitions – one (the FA Cup) for the first time in 44 years – and the league is always going to have high and low moments, but we seem to have our moments in clusters, in terms of our wins and losses. If we spread them out over the season better, then I think it would be easier, but we are where we are, we have a lot to look forward to. There are 18 games and so many points to play for and we will give it everything to win as many as we can.”

Exeter were so bad in losing 6-2 at home to Leyton Orient in midweek that Caldwell apologised for the performance and branded it as ‘embarrassing.’ City were 4-0 down by half-time, while they trailed 3-0 at the break in their previous match with Blackpool as well before losing that one 3-1.

Fast starts for the Grecians are about as common as a popular politician right now and in the wake of the Orient debacle, Caldwell called on players not in favour to prove to him in training that they should be involved this weekend. One player in particular is Ben Purrington, whose exclusion from the squad in recent weeks – despite being a natural defender proven at League One level – has left supporters mystified.

“There are some (players) lurking about at the minute, so when I have finished, I will go back and speak to them, but I speak to them all the time individually or as units,” Caldwell said. “We have a team meeting this (Thursday) morning, but they are always honest conversations and that is what I want, I want players knocking on my door, I want players showing me in training they should be playing and I am sure that is what I will get today.

“For me, the only thing you can affect in football is the next day, the next training session or the next game, so you have to recover and have a resilience to setbacks, which we have had recently. You can’t come in and mope about because that’s not going to make anything better.

“We have to come in and be positive and obviously we have to address the problems and do something about it - that is hard work on the training ground – but there is always a positivity with me. I believe in this group, I believe in the season ahead as we have 18 games and a lot to look forward to.”