Gary Caldwell lauds Exeter’s flying Finn Ilmari Niskanen after Barnsley win

Manager Gary Caldwell praised in-form Ilmari Niskanen for his match-winning contribution in the 3-0 thumping of Barnsley which took Exeter out of the League One relegation zone.

The Finland international rifled in a superb volley from an acute angle to open the scoring on 41 minutes before Jayden Wareham’s ninth of the season made it two just past the hour mark.

Niskanen then turned provider for Reece Cole to finish things off with Exeter’s third goal after 73 minutes.

“I am really pleased for Ilmari because he is a fantastic team-mate and works hard every day to be the best player he can be,” Caldwell said.

“He knows his end product and finishing can improve and if he gets that right, he can be a top, top player – and he is a top player for us with what he gives us.

“I am delighted with the win but it can always be better and I said that to the players – we have to keep pushing, we have to demand more.

“I thought it took us 20 minutes to work out the game and be clear on what we needed to do and then, one of our behaviours which was key to the win, was running – and we ran today.

“We needed to put pressure on their players because they are a very good team in possession and have rotations and play a box in midfield which is always difficult to work out.

“You need players on the frontline putting pressure on the ball, backline players willing to step into areas they might not be comfortable with.

“But once we committed and ran and starting winning duels, I thought we dominated the game second half and thoroughly deserved our win.”

Barnsley boss Conor Hourihane felt his players never got going as their inconsistent season of results continued in Devon.

“It was disappointing and we weren’t quite there, for whatever reason,” Hourihane said. “The lads have been brilliant in training all week but, for some reason, we were flat.

“Credit to Exeter because they did their homework on us and played really, really well but for us it’s a frustrating one.

“I thought we started the game well and did OK but I felt that was it.

“It was 15-20 minutes where we did OK, then we lost our way a little bit, but we can’t keep being really, really good one week and then really, really poor the next week.

“We have to find that middle ground to make us that little bit more consistent because, at the minute, we are taking one big step forward and then a big step back.

“I wanted a reaction at half-time but they obviously then got a couple of goals to put us to bed and obviously the game was gone, which was disappointing and there was no reaction then either.”