It is twelfth against eleventh at St James's Park on Saturday and at the moment it is hard to feel optimistic about the likelihood of our team pushing on and breaking into the top six.

Although they are unbeaten in five games, there has been little in the performances to suggest that they have sufficient guile or steel either to break open defences or keep the opposition out. Without Jones and Ramsey, the defence has been far from convincing and has conceded eight goals in the four games since that euphoric clean sheet against Birmingham.

Exeter City made a poor start to the season - losing three of their opening five games but they followed that up by keeping five clean sheets and beating Stevenage, Leyton, Cambridge and Shrewsbury along with a draw at Wigan. By mid-October, they had leapt from sixteenth to fourth. However, they have lost their last two games against stronger opposition: 1-2 at home to Reading and 0-2 at Huddersfield which means they are now back in mid table, one place above us, albeit with a game in hand.

Like us, the Grecians made heavy weather of beating National League opposition in the Cup last weekend, although they did manage to see off Barnet without needing extra time. Highlight of the 5-3 win was a hat trick from Josh Magennis, who joined them from Wigan in the summer. Manager Gary Caldwell was full of praise for the Northern Ireland striker after he scored his first goal for them in their win at Shrewsbury:

"He's been amazing in so many different ways. Obviously, as a number nine you're going to be judged on goals, that's why we signed him - to be that focal point and score goals. But I think Josh brings so much more than goals in terms of his experience, his character around the place on a daily basis. What he's brought in terms of that, the culture that we now have, he's a very big part of what we do."

Nathan Jones was full of respect for Exeter at his Thursday press conference:

“We're expecting another League One test against a well-coached team. They're a dangerous side and it’s always a tough place to go to". He had little in terms of good news on the injury front: “Gassan [Ahadme] has obviously had another week, but other than that we are in no better situation in terms of selection.”

So we will presumably still be without Jones, Ramsay, Kanu, Chuks and Tyreece Campbell. We can only hope that the remaining players will be on top of  "the basics" this week. It might also be a good idea not to allow Ben Purrington to give them an early lead as we did last season.

A draw wouldn't be a bad result but, if we are realistically to be seen as a top six club, we need to come away with all three points.