Exeter City travel to Port Vale this Saturday aiming to build on the confidence from their midweek cup victory. The League Two fixture at Vale Park offers a chance to improve on a league position of 16th, with five points from five games.

Recent form

City's last outing was a 2-0 win over Tottenham Hotspur U21 in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday. Danny Rose opened the scoring in the 35th minute, assisted by Taylor Perry, before Louie Cayless sealed the result late on. That result snapped a three-game winless run in all competitions, which included league draws with Walsall and Barnet and a defeat at York. You can review the full sequence of results on our fixtures page.

Port Vale, meanwhile, have struggled for form. They have taken just one point from their last four league matches, a run that includes defeats to Salford City, Swindon Town and Oldham Athletic. Their last outing was a 1-0 loss at Salford a week ago.

Team news and approach

Exeter manager Gary Caldwell is expected to revert to a more familiar league lineup after making several changes for the cup tie. The side that started against Tottenham featured Frankie Phillips in goal, with a back four of Liam Oakes, J. Taylor, L. Woodhouse and V. Harper. The midfield trio of T. Perry, L. Cayless and Ajay Matthews provided the platform for attackers George Birch, Ethan Sutherland and match-winner Danny Rose.

Port Vale manager Darren Moore used a 3-4-2-1 shape against Salford, with J. Smith in goal behind a defensive trio of Kyle John, L. Montsma and C. Hall. Their wing-backs were J. Lawrence-Gabriel and J. Headley, flanking central midfielders K. Dempsey and B. Garrity. G. Hall and M. Asamoah supported lone striker O. Lynch.

For Exeter, the key will be finding a cutting edge on the road, having scored just once in their two away league games so far. The team's overall record shows four goals scored and four conceded this campaign. A look at the current standings shows City are seven points adrift of early leaders Bristol Rovers, underlining the need to start picking up wins.

What comes next

This match kicks off a busy period for Caldwell's squad. After the trip to Staffordshire, attention turns to the next league fixture at home to Northampton Town on January 9th. Securing a positive result at Vale Park would provide a vital boost ahead of that run. The full squad available for selection is listed on our squad page.