Gary Caldwell’s Exeter troops braced for ‘aggressive’ Shrewsbury

The Grecians manager was speaking ahead of the meeting between Salop and his side at the Croud Meadow this evening.

Town have taken four points out of their last two games after getting a resilient 2-2 draw at promotion-hopefuls Bolton before then making the trip to Crawley and hitting five past Rob Elliot’s Reds in an eight-goal thriller.

And the Exeter boss is aware Salop have switched formations in recent weeks and says Town’s improvement is going to make it a much tougher game.

“They are in better form, so their confidence will be up,” Caldwell said. “I perhaps feel this is a much tougher game than it would have been two weeks ago.

“We know how tough it is to go there. Last year we got a bit of a helping hand with the red card, but we know how difficult it will be. We have to focus on ourselves and be prepared and work on the areas we can improve. If we can do that, we can be a really dangerous team.

“Dan Green went to their game (at Crawley) and I watched it on Sky, and they have changed their formation.

“They are much more aggressive and direct than they have been.”

Exeter have played two fewer games than Shrews at this stage in the season due to international postponements.

And their players will have had the chance of a rest, too, after their game against Mansfield on Saturday was called off for that very reason.

The game will be played this evening and will be broadcast live on Sky Sports.