FOOTBALL-Manager Caldwell labels Mitchell’s booking as ‘soft’

LONDON, CMC – Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell has described the yellow card that resulted in goalscorer Demitri Mitchell’s sending off on Tuesday against Luton Town as a “soft booking” and says he loved the player’s aggression throughout the contest.

The 26-year-old Mitchell scored in the 83rd minute at home at St James Park to earn the League One side a shock upset over the Premier League opponents and a place in the next round of the League Cup.

However, Mitchell, who has publicly declared his desire to represent Jamaica, was sent off in the 88th minute, leaving Exeter to play out the remaining time with ten men.

“I think these bookings are quite soft. I think there were a lot of tackles throughout the game that, for me, were fouls that we didn’t get, and then he gets two soft bookings,” Caldwell said afterward.

“I quite like that he’s playing with aggression. I quite like that he’s playing to try and win the ball, and unfortunately, when you do that at times, you run the risk of getting booked.

“But I thought overall, both bookings were quite harsh.”

Mitchell’s sending-off saw Exeter City defending desperately over the last seven minutes of the contest to keep Luton Town at bay.

But even then, Caldwell said the hosts remained in control.

“Even then, I don’t think they created a clear-cut chance. We put bodies on the line,” Caldwell said.

“But even with the ten men, there was a real attitude of ‘we will not concede tonight,’ and that got us over the line.”

Born in England, Mitchell has already represented the country at age group level but said last year he wanted to play senior team football for Jamaica, where his grandparents were born.

He featured for Manchester United in a single Premier League game six years ago after coming through their academy but has been on the move since, playing for Blackpool and Hibernian in Scotland before arriving at Exeter last January.

“I also have aspirations to play for Jamaica. I’ve got heritage there, so that’s an aspiration of mine as well,” he said in an interview last year.

“To get a call-up would be a massive, massive thing for me. My grandparents are Jamaican.”