After two wins from two, it has been a perfect start to the new season for Exeter City, but the Grecians face arguably

their sternest test of the campaign yet when Blackpool visit St James Park this afternoon.

The Tangerines, who beat Exeter 2-1 to win promotion from League Two in the 2017 play-off final at Wembley, have

just come down after a season in the Championship and are tipped by many to go straight back up.

Exeter are much less fancied, but turned in one of the results of the day on the opening weekend of the EFL season

with a stunning 3-0 victory at Wycombe Wanderers. They were less impressive, but still worthy winners, in the

Carabao Cup against Crawley in midweek and will be hoping to make it three from three at the Park today.

“I am really happy with the results, really happy with the players went about both games, but there is still loads of

improvements to make within the team that we were playing and developing those relationships within the team, but

we couldn’t have asked for a better start,” manager Gary Caldwell said.

“It will be a really difficult game. They are a team that have come down from the Championship, so they have had a

season where they are playing against top teams week in, week out, so they are coming here as a big club with real

aspirations to win promotion. It will be a massive test for us and one which we are really looking forward to.

“I am not one for measuring where we are in the season. To be honest, everyone has been saying how well we done

on Saturday and it was annoying me a little bit on Tuesday because we had another game and now we have to go

again. We have to become a club and a team that, no matter what the result is, we analyse it, we put it to bed, we look

at the next game and we move on.

“That’s what the team have done. Tuesday was a huge test coming off the back of Wycombe, when we played so well

and win so convincingly, to then get yourself up for it. It took us 45 minutes, so we have to learn lessons from that,

but we want to be a team that goes game-to-game with a real focus of winning.

“Whatever we have done so far means nothing now. We have to focus on Blackpool and make sure we are better in

certain areas, if we want to win the game, and we have to get that right.”

The Grecians will be missing midfielder Harry Kite this afternoon and he faces two months on the sidelines as he

needs an operation on a knee issue. Pierce Sweeney is a major doubt after limping off against Crawley, but Demitri

Mitchell and Tom Carroll are in contention after missing the midweek win.

“Sweenz has a slight muscle problem in his abductor and I think Saturday will be too soon for him,” Caldwell said. “I

think he will do really well to be fit, but we are hopeful of Saturday next week, or potentially Tuesday (when Exeter

head along the south coast to Portsmouth) so we will assess him over the next 48 hours and see how he is.

“Everyone else is fit, apart from Harry Kite, who is out longer-term – probably six to eight weeks with his knee injury

– but everyone else is raring to go.

“Harry suffered an impact with their left-sided player at Weston, so we took him off. He just felt his knee rock and he

has damaged his cartilage in his knee and he needs an operation to clean that up.”

The opening round of fixtures saw plenty of games go beyond 100 minutes as everyone adapts to the new time

keeping rules adopted by the FA and EFL. City’s match at Wycombe was one of very few where added time was under

ten minutes, but Caldwell has warned the additional time could have implications for players.

“We are playing a much longer game now. It feels like a 100 minute game now and not a 90 minute game, so that will

take its toll on players physically and squads as the season goes on because the minutes will accumulate,” he said.

“From that point of view, I think it’s going to be hard, but in terms of what supporters are seeing, they are seeing

more ball in play and that’s what they are trying to do with this, but I definitely think the time wasting has stopped.

“I have not seen what you normally see with teams trying to waste time and kill the game by people going down

injured, or the goalkeeper slowing the game down because they know it gets added on now, so from that point of

view, I think it’s a big plus. Longer-term, it could have an impact on players physically.”